Police war on
Ice menace spreads with armed dealers battling each other
GEELONG police say they are raiding ice-related houses almost every day as they battle to rid the city of the drug.
The city’s top drug cop, Senior Sergeant Rod Lloyd, said the drug trade was driving up illegal gun ownership as dealers battled each other for supply.
“Everywhere you see drugs, you see tragedy. I can’t understand for the life of me why you’d want to take it, it’s something that literally can make your skin crawl,” he said.
“We’re targeting those higher up the food chain, the suppliers.
“We’re after the people peddling the misery.
“We’re executing warrants relating to ice nearly every day.”
New data from the Crime Statistics Agency shows the total number of drug offences rose 36.3 per cent in the year ending June 2017.
Charges specifically relating to the cultivation or manufacture of drugs rose 97.8 per cent, with 89 cases processed.
There were also 159 cases of drug dealing and trafficking intercepted and 857 drug use and possession charges laid, up 41 per cent on the previous year.
Sen-Sgt Lloyd said di ice remained the “drug of choice” around Geelong and was causing a substantial amount of harm across the city.
He said no suburb was immune, with the drug detected across both low socio-economic and affluent suburbs.
“There is nothing good about ice,” Sen-Sgt Lloyd said.
“With it seems to come a sense of invincibility, but why someone would want to use something so destructive is beyond me.
“The more we take off the street, the harder it is to deal and obtain it and we will continue our efforts there.”
Sen-Sgt Lloyd said equally as concerning was the rise in the number of firearms being seized from drug users and traffickers.