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Police shrink as drug gangs get bigger
18.04.05
As international gangsters develop the $1-billion-a-year illicit drugs trade in
New Zealand, the number of police assigned to gang intelligence has shrunk from
40 in the mid-1990s to just a dozen today, a Herald investigation has learned.
In that time gangs have become more sophisticated and entrenched in the drug
business and frontline police believe senior officers and the Government are
doing too little to crack down on the growing problem.
A number of police districts have no drug squad or dedicated intelligence
officers.
This is highlighted by a February incident in which Hells Angels and Head
Hunters joined the Filthy Few gang on their annual motorcycle run from Tauranga
and no police were assigned, either for traffic control or intelligence
gathering.
Such events are prime opportunities for police to update data.
A former policeman, whose area of expertise was motorcycle gangs and who left
the force out of frustration, said his group would gather intelligence on which
to base an operation but would often find no resources were available to carry
out the operation.
Small teams of detectives monitor Asian crime and motorcycle gangs in and around
Auckland.
One of the motorcycle team has been seconded to a crime car for six months,
which the Herald was told is indicative of pressure to plug gaps in frontline
policing.
"They [gangs] know exactly how busy we are and they trade on that, that we don’t
have the time to go after them because there are easier guys to go after."
Their concerns are echoed by Police Association president Greg O’Connor, who
said organised crime had gained a foothold and a commission of inquiry was
necessary.
Mr O’Connor said the association had been issuing warnings about P since 1998
but police chiefs were saying as late as 2001 it was not a problem.
But frontline police, in particular dog handlers called out to violent
incidents, were saying the Government and police headquarters had rejected calls
for an inquiry.
Statements from Justice Minister Phil Goff, Police Minister George Hawkins and
Police Assistant Commissioner Peter Marshall say $47 million was allocated in
the past two Budgets to target methamphetamine crime.
These have gone towards cleaning up clandestine labs, ESR analysis and
electronic surveillance.
A third six-person surveillance team has been added to the Auckland Metro Crime
Services group.
Mr Goff said two new law changes - the beefing-up of proceeds of crime powers,
and the ability to have judge-alone trials when there is a risk of jury
intimidation or tampering - would help tackle organised crime.
The proceeds of crime change would turn the onus on to suspected criminals to
prove their assets were legitimate.
Assets could be frozen, where there were reasonable grounds to suspect they came
from crime.
Once the Crown proved that it was probably so, the onus changed to the
respondent to prove the assets were gained legitimately.
Although the $3.7 million forfeited last year under the Proceeds of Crime Act
1991 was a record, it is minuscule compared with the $1 billion the illicit drug
industry is estimated to be worth a year.
Mr Goff: "What I noticed from signing out these confiscation approvals is that
I’m getting the little fish, I’m not getting the big fish."
The new law would enable enforcement agencies to crack down on organised crime
to a much greater degree, he said.
"And I don’t think we’ve seen the end of measures too. We’ve given the resources
and the powers to crack down."
Mr O’Connor said although the Government’s extra money for targeting labs had
produced some good results, rival gangs were now importing most of the
methamphetamine, ice and precursor drugs for manufacturing P and he predicted
Mafia-like tactics would become more common to deal with competition.
Frontline police have been telling the Herald since last year that there was an
unwritten message not to target gangs and drug labs because dealing with the
labs was difficult and made crime statistics look bad.
Convictions in organised crime don’t come easy, often requiring long and
expensive campaigns based on bugging suspects’ properties and telephones.
"It really is invisible crime," said one specialist investigator, "because if
you don’t look you don’t find it."