NSW ice crisis: Statistics reveal devastation across Sydney, rural NSW
These are some of the faces responsible for NSW’s worsening ice crisis. New statistics now reveal the devastating impact in each suburb. SEE HOW BADLY YOUR AREA HAS BEEN HIT.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The devastation brought by ice to regional towns and even the insidious seeping into a blue ribbon patch of the eastern suburbs is detailed in stark new drug statistics for NSW.
The latest numbers from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) shows the downward spiral of the past 10 years as incidents of drug possession and trafficking soars statewide.
The statistics are broken down by Local Government Areas and are based on crime “incidents” rather than charges.
This means if the same offender was charged at the same place and time on several counts it is recorded as just one incident making the figures potentially all the more harrowing.
A spokeswoman for BOCSAR confirmed if one person was charged with dealing or possessing drugs in a range of locations, for example across different suburbs or at different residential addresses, the police will often log them as separate incidents.
The number of incidents of dealing or trafficking amphetamines has climbed 12 per cent a year for the past decade with figures for drug possession charges following suit at an average of 11 per cent year on year.
In 2011 there were 950 recorded instances of drug dealing compared to a whopping 2941 last year across the state.
Drug possession numbers have skyrocketed from 2798 incidents a decade ago to 8000 in 2020.
The statistics on amphetamines take into account both ice and speed – although it is understood the majority of the incidents are in relation to ice.
BOCSAR executive director Jackie Fitzgerald said they had seen a steady rise in amphetamine use in th epast 10 years.
“The rate of amphetamines possession detections nearly tripled from 2009 to 2020. This is a sharper increase than any other drug type. Amphetamines are now the second most detected illegal drug behind cannabis,” Ms Fitzgerald said.
“There is always the risk with drug offences that an increase in detections simply reflects an increase in policing. Fortunately we have other sources that can confirm amphetamine use is rising.
“Wastewater analysis shows that the level of methylamphetamine detected has increased steadily from 2016 to 2020.”
The figures paint a devastating picture of how small towns become crippled after ice is introduced.
DEAL/TRAFFIC INCIDENTS IN YOUR AREA
In 2011 the Central Coast area had just 39 incidents of amphetamines dealing and 69 of possession.
By last year that had snowballed to 784 incidents of dealing and 318 of possession.
In Ballina, there wasn’t a single trafficking incident in 2011 but by last year the tally was at 145.
Waverley Local Court Magistrate Ross Hudson often delivers a reality check to drug dealers who cross his path.
Upon recently sentencing two such drug dealers, he revealed the heartbreak he’d witnessed during his time on the bench.
“I think some people need to go into a small country town and see what happens when a shipment of drugs arrives,” Magistrate Hudson said.
USE/POSSESS INCIDENTS IN YOUR AREA
“Children are left unbathed, unkempt, cigarettes in their nappies while their parents are on drugs.”
The City of Sydney council area leads the state with possession up from 521 to 928 between 2011 and 2020.
Over the same time period incidents of supply have increased in the area from 137 to 188.
These areas showed the following rises in possession every single year for the past decade with no signs of slowing down: Blacktown 8.5 per cent, Campbelltown 8.8 per cent, Fairfield 10.6 per cent, Liverpool a shocking 21.9 per cent, Newcastle 12.1 per cent, Penrith 9.5 per cent, Sutherland 7.4 per cent and Wollongong 11.9 per cent.
The scourge is even seeping into Sydney’s east with ice possession incidents in Randwick up 1.5 per cent each year.
It is a major priority for police who are busting dealers and smugglers across the state.
Here are just a handful of the biggest busts in recent months.
ROSE BAY LINK TO MEXICAN ICE
A 130kg haul of ice was discovered inside a large piece of machinery which led to three men being charged including a father from a ritzy suburb in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
The meth was valued at about $70 million and was found by customs inside a one-tonne electromagnet, sent in air cargo from Mexico to Sydney.
Authorities carried out a controlled delivery of the machine in January last year to a business in Alexandria before it was picked up and moved to Condell Park.
Three men were charged in the weeks following the investigation and all three men have since pleaded guilty to their part in the drug operation.
That includes Yagoona’s Ahmed Jarkas, Rose Bay father Ahmed Sadi, and his brother-in-law Moey Sadi from Sylvania.
Jarkas and Ahmed Sadi have pleaded guilty to supply prohibited drug (large commercial quantity) while Moey Sadi has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of participate criminal group contribute criminal activity. The trio are yet to be sentenced.
RESPECTED CITY PLANNER TURNED TO DEALING METH
For most of his life, Shayne Watson was a respectable and hardworking member of the community.
The 53-year-old held down jobs as a town planner both in his native New Zealand and NSW and also worked in other government roles.
However, a court heard he spiralled out of control following a redundancy and the breakdown of a long-term relationship.
He was caught selling meth and other drugs out of his Surry Hills apartment during February 2020, with police watching customers come and go on 19 occasions to buy drugs throughout that month.
When he was arrested and charged police also found a large amount of meth (40g) around his home and inside a nearby storage unit.
He pleaded guilty to drug supply and was sentenced to a jail term of at least two years in April in the NSW District Court.
DUO SPREAD ICE ACROSS THE NORTHERN BEACHES
A tradie and an aspiring gym owner were busted as part of a police strike force set up to stop the supply of ice across Sydney’s northern beaches.
Strike Force Spinosa netted the arrests of two meth dealers Andrew Spiroulias and Darren Moseley in late 2019.
Aspiring gym owner Spiroulias supplied a total of 66g of meth and a similar amount of heroin in public places on the northern beaches including petrol stations and supermarkets.
Spiroulias pleaded guilty and was sent to prison for at least three years and seven months in November 2020 for drug supply – marking the third time he had been sent to prison for drug dealing.
Meanwhile, Moseley narrowly avoided being sent to jail for dealing meth out of his unit in Dee Why.
A court heard the roof plumber had been using meth for over 30 years and he was supplying the drug to support his own habit.
He sold over 100g of meth during 2019 and he purchased the drugs from his supplier, Spiroulias.
He was sentenced in November 2020 to a jail term of two years to be served in the community, as part of an intensive correction order, having pleaded guilty to drug supply.
ROAD TRIP WITH A PADLOCKED SPORTS BAG
A road trip to the Sunshine State had a whole different purpose for one failed Sydney businessman, with his boot stocked with about $1.2 million worth of ice.
Angga Sapria Malik, 33, from Moorebank, was caught driving an Audi in NSW’s Far North Coast with the drugs hidden inside a padlocked sports bag in his boot, during a trip to Brisbane.
The vehicle was searched and police discovered ten vacuum sealed bags of meth weighing about 10kg in the sports bag.
However, Malik was only sentenced for the supply of between 5g and 249g of ice in the NSW District Court in May, based on the understanding he wasn’t aware of the sheer quantity of the drugs inside his car boot.
A court heard he was set to pocket $1000 for transporting the drugs.
The former Randwick Boys’ High School student pleaded guilty to drug supply and was sentenced to a two-year jail sentence, to be served in the community.
DEALER JUST ‘TRYING TO MAKE ENDS MEET’
A heavily-tattooed Penrith father-of-four dealing ice out of his car told a court he was trying to make ends meet, despite having $8000 cash hidden at his house.
Steven Joseph Paul Valesini was arrested following a six-month Strike Force Raptor investigation which saw police swoop on a planned drug deal near Caddens in Sydney’s west in late 2019.
Valesini arranged the drug deal using coded text messages.
The agreed facts stated police watched the father-of-four leave the Caddens home he was living in at the time, in a Audi Q7, before police stopped him minutes later and seized 16g of ice in his possession.
A further 16g of ice was also found hidden in a motorbike boot at his home as well as $8000 cash.
Valesini pleaded guilty to drug supply and told a court he was dealing drugs due to financial pressures.
He was convicted and sentenced to a jail term of 18 months in July 2020.
Police negotiate with man as Sydney siege contines
A man armed with a gun is speaking with police negotiators as a major police operation in Sydney’s eastern suburbs entered its ninth hour.
Fatal crash driver’s ‘bizarre’ court no show
A magistrate and police prosecutor have been left perplexed after a driver charged with fatally hitting a pedestrian in the middle of Wollongong did not show up to court for his first appearance.