SA Police reveal the state’s largest meth ‘ice’ busts
Millions of dollars of meth is secretly made or couriered into SA every year as police work tirelessly to cut off supply. These are the biggest ice busts they’ve made.
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South Australia has an ice problem.
And the latest Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission wastewater testing figures show it has no sign of stopping any time soon.
Across the country, Adelaide ranked second highest for consumption of methamphetamine and fentanyl, while regionally it was even worse.
Regional South Australians per-capita consume more meth, fentanyl and cannabis than any of their regional counterparts in the rest of the country.
It’s an addiction that doesn’t discriminate.
Superintendent Billy Thompson from the SA Police Serious and Organised Crime Branch said while other drugs like fake Xanax were favoured by younger people, meth-users were impossible to predict.
“We stop people driving their cars and they can have a positive result for meth – people in their 60s are getting stopped for that,” he said.
“People have been using amphetamine and drugs in general here for a long, long time, so it’s right through the scale.”
Despite its pervasiveness, Supt Thompson said meth use in the state, while “prevalent”, had “stabilised” in more recent times.
That stabilisation has no doubt been prompted by police work, and huge busts that have disrupted the supply of the drug.
From smallest to biggest, these are among the biggest busts SA Police have made.
11kg traffic stop
Where: Ceduna.
When: September 5, 2017.
The bust: Headed to the regional hub of Port Augusta where 11kg of the deadly drug ice could do serious damage, SA Police stopped a ticking time bomb.
That ticking time-bomb was uncovered in a car stopped at the Nundroo roadhouse, near Ceduna, and could have equated to 100,000 doses.
Valued at $11m, the haul was discovered as part of a joint policing operation between WA Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.
11kg superlab
Where: Morphett Vale.
When: October 8, 2018.
The bust: The first of two of the state’s least innocuous clandestine lab busts, police hit at the heart of the meth production business in SA.
When specialist officers barged down the door of a Morphett Vale home, they knew their intel was good – but just how good would not be known until they made it to the kitchen.
When there, they found 11kg of methamphetamine worth $5.5m.
Serious and Organised Crime Branch Detective Superintendent Mark Trenwith said officers encountered naked flames and strong chemical smells at the property, and a set up he described as a “recipe for disaster”.
“This is a significant seizure and will potentially prevent kilograms of ice worth millions of dollars hitting the streets,” he said.
18kg interception
Where: Perth Airport, en route to an Adelaide warehouse.
When: February 2018.
The bust: Countless hours planning and organising between SA Police and the Australian Federal Police proved fruitful when, on route to Adelaide, a suspicious package was intercepted.
Within that suspicious package would turn out to be 18kg of high-purity meth worth as much as $7m.
Police went on to search the Adelaide factory to which the consignment was addressed and found money counters and scales.
AFP Superintendent Gail McClure said police had been tipped off to the haul after a similar consignment was intercepted just months before.
21L lab grab
Where: Morphett Vale.
When: August 18, 2021.
The bust: When police tracked down and busted a meth lab at Morphett Vale in mid-August last year it was to their relief they found it was not operating.
Regardless, they believed it had the capacity to produce “significant quantities” of meth when up and running and police say 21 litres of meth oil – used to make the final product – were at the scene.
It took them days to deconstruct, and was brought down by the combined forces of SA Police and the AFP.
Serious and Organised Crime Branch Serious and Organised Crime Branch Detective Superintendent Mark Trenwith said the lab bust would reduce the supply of meth in SA.
“This investigation will have a significant impact on the supply of methamphetamine and have a positive effect in reducing harm to the South Australian community,” he said.
AFP Acting Commander Gail McClure said the bust likely saved lives.
“The human cost of methamphetamine production is significant, which is why finding and disrupting labs like this is so important,” she said.
50kg half-century
Where: Port Wakefield.
When: April 7, 2021.
The bust: Fifty-kilograms and $25m street value.
The numbers are mind-boggling, and the impact on SA streets is unfathomable.
But it was nothing more than a good old-fashioned tip-off that saw the extraordinary haul of meth seized by police in April last year.
SA Police Detective Chief Inspector Darren Fielke said the discovery was one of the “largest seizures in recent times”.
“This is a very significant seizure of methylamphetamine,” he said.
Largest 120kg per week superlab
Where: Croydon.
When: October 30, 2018.
The bust: SA Police had only two weeks earlier pushed out their chests and unveiled their hard work to bust a massive meth lab at Morphett Vale.
But that lab, which was burning when they burst through the doors, would prove to hardly hold a candle to what they came upon on a quiet suburban street at Croydon 22-days later.
It was nothing less than a suburban “superlab” capable of producing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of meth, shut down just as it was set to expand.
The equipment they found could have translated to hundreds of kilograms of ice, but the bust meant it was wiped clean from the state.
Detective Superintendent Mark Trenwith said the seizure was one of the largest in the state’s history and involved an unprecedented scale of commercial production.
“This lab is one of the largest found in South Australian history and we believe it has been up and running for some time,” Mr Trenwith said.
112kg country cache
Where: Bowhill.
When: April 22, 2017.
The bust: An intricate and calculated combined SA Police, AFP and Australian Border Force operation could not have been more successful.
When STAR Group officers finally made the bust, they would go on to uncover 112kg of methamphetamine, at that time the largest haul ever intercepted by SA Police.
While the weight of the drugs speaks for itself, its street value – about $56m – is another thing altogether.
SA Police Detective Chief Inspector Tony Crameri said, unsurprisingly, the bust was “very significant”.
“When we are looking at the number of hits that come out of this seizure and the fact the South Australian community has an insatiable appetite for narcotics as per the statistics, I have no doubt that this has made a drastic dent in the importation and the trade of these organised crimes,” he said.
Biggest ever 313kg mother lode
Where: Australian border, across Adelaide.
When: Mid-February, 2018.
The bust: It came as South Australia was fast earning its name as the “ice capital” of Australia.
And while that moniker may well still haunt the state, the largest ever meth bust in SA history went some way to preventing hundreds of thousands of drug doses being delivered.
That bust – to the weight of 313kg and value of about $270m – would more than triple the next biggest bust, and go down in policing history.
A combined operation between the AFP, ABF, SA Police, Home Affairs Department, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, AUSTRAC and the Australian Taxation Office, the intelligence and operation could scarcely have had a greater impact on the supply of meth into SA.
AFP Assistant Commissioner Organised Crime and Cyber Neil Gaughan said those impacts would be wide-ranging.
“Thanks to the dedication of our members working together, these drugs will never reach the streets of Adelaide and spread their devastating effects,” he said.
South Australia Police Assistant Commissioner Scott Duval said the bust was a record – which it remains – and would impact the drug network across the country.
“A record amount of drugs have been seized which was believed destined for the streets of South Australia and other states,” he said.
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