St Kilda crime crackdown leads to dozens of arrests

Amid concerns from St Kilda locals about drug activity, police have made dozens of arrests and laid trafficking charges after crime crackdown.

=Police patrol a crowded St Kilda beach. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

Police have made dozens of arrests and laid heroin trafficking charges after a major operation aimed at cutting high-volume crime in St Kilda.

Operation Spartan has run for six weeks in the area amid concerns from locals about drug activity and other anti-social behaviour, mostly around Acland, Grey and Fitzroy streets.

Spartan officers performed highly visible patrolling and zeroed in on known offenders, aiming to curb drug behaviour because of its links to other crimes, including thefts and robberies.

The 46 people arrested were charged with a total of 120 offences as police carried out a wave of arrest and search warrants.

Seven of those detained were remanded in custody.

Thirty grams of heroin, estimated to be worth $15,000, and $2500 cash were seized from a home in Fitzroy St as part of Spartan.

A woman, 59, was later charged with trafficking and possessing heroin.

In an earlier incident on Grey St, two men were arrested after one fled them on foot and the other drove away, allegedly throwing drugs out of a car window.

Police patrol a crowded St Kilda beach. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

Sgt Georgeana Jones of St Kilda police said the feedback from locals prior to Spartan had been that they were unhappy with the level of drug use.

Sgt Jones said St Kilda had many residents with drug, mental health or homelessness issues and part of the operation was to make life tough for the dealers preying on them.

The work of Spartan would be continued this season by the Summersafe campaign, Sgt Jones said.

Operation Spartan was launched on November 1 and saw local police working closely with investigators from the Crime Investigation Unit, Divisional Response Unit, Bike Patrol, Proactive Policing Unit and Youth Resource Officers.

Senior Sergeant Angela Hantsis said Operation Spartan would have a strong focus on community safety, with police wanting residents and visitors in St Kilda to not only be safe but feel safe.

“We know that members of the community have shared their concerns about issues such as drug trafficking, drug use, anti-social behaviour and thefts which is why we’ve developed Operation Spartan,” she said.

“A priority for police will be tackling drug crime as we know this is a driver of other volume crime categories such as property crime, theft, burglaries and robberies and is often linked to funding a dependence on drugs.”

[e-mail]