Drug dragnet delivers hope
How towns are tackling Ice Highway
IN THE two months since a police dragnet charged drug dealers and users across the south west, glimmers of hope continue to sprout.
Those addicted are getting help, their loved ones being supported and trafficking routes still on the radar of authorities.
But where once sweeping raids would cripple the supply of one drug, only to drive up demand for others, that is not the story unfolding across the South-West police district.
Operation Oscar Kohl last October netted more than 25 people after two years of overt and covert policing in the sprawling district, and the primary target was ice, or methylamphetamine.
But when the dragnet was applied, the more than 60 police officers and detectives brought with them welfare and support agencies to help those charged, but also their families and community members fed up with ice in the towns.
“We had all our services lined up when we closed the operation,” South-West Detective Inspector Paul Hart reflected.
“We wanted to make it so another drug wouldn’t just come and fill the void.
“Once we removed ice, the community basically has relearned how to live their lives without (ice) as part of their ongoing life.”
Concerns ice would be replaced by heroin or other narcotics were yet to be proven, Det. Insp. Hart said.
“We don’t have the blinkers on,” he said.
“We’ll look at any dangerous drugs that are being moved in our district because any of those drugs will have an impact on the community.”
South-West detectives continue to focus on how drugs are entering the region, collaborating with Australian Federal Police and Border Force agencies to identify supply routes.
Like the laws of economics, there’s less risk and greater reward for traffickers to import rather than produce the drug.
“It’s much cheaper and less risky to import that cheap drug than to make your own,” Det. Insp. Hart said.