Slippery slope of creativity
Delves into the dark underbelly of drug dealers and the bizarre methods they used to hide their illegal stashes
Druggies are getting more and more creative when it comes to hiding their stashes.
I recently spent a couple of hours with a couple from Sydney while hiking the Cape to Cape trail in Western Australia.
The wife was an animal carer who happened to mention when the subject of snakes came up that she and her colleagues were occasionally called out by police on drug busts to remove highly venomous brown snakes from glass terrariums.
The drug dealers hide money and drugs and even weapons under the mulch at the bottom of these glass enclosures.
Once upon a time the coppers would see the snake house and think “yep, nothing to see here” while they continued to tear up the floor boards and the kitchen cabinets looking for the stash.
Completely not thinking that what they were looking for was right there in front of them under a couple of Joe Blakes.
They’ve cottoned on now and when they go into suspected drug houses and see snakes in an terrarium they go straight into “hello, hello, hello, what have we here” mode and call in the experts to remove the reptiles so that they can have a dig around underneath.
So, all you druggies out there, the party is over when it comes to hiding whatever you want to hide under the litter in the snake pen.
NEVER WOULD HAVE GUESSED
And speaking of drugs, while we were in WA our son was house hunting.
When he contacted a conveyancing solicitor about one place he had his eye on, she advised that as well as getting the usual pest and building inspection, he should get it drug tested as well.
What! Wow! Never heard of that, but apparently it’s a thing now when buying a home.
You need to know your house hasn’t had a previous life as a drug lab and that the materials inside aren’t riddled with methamphetamine and other toxic substances.
The Alcohol and Drug Foundation site states that homes which have been used as meth factories or ‘labs’ are a health risk and as well as ‘meth’ there will possibly be a host other toxic substances.
DEEP CLEAN NEEDED
Doing a pest and building and drug test seems to be the latest thing in WA, but will it become a normal part of the home buying procedure here?
Kylie Woods from JJ Maher Pest Management in Townsville told me the company she works for has done a few meth inspections on behalf of home buyers, some of which have been positive.
Homes that return a positive reading are given a special clean, covering all surfaces including the ceiling.
If there’s carpet, throw it out.
Apparently when meth is cooked, the residue goes up onto the ceiling and then just drips down onto anything below.
Houses can be checked by using a test kit similar to the Covid test and if positive, swabs are taken and sent off to a lab.
On the other hand if the property in question has been raided by police, the cleaners will forego the Covid-like test and just go in and do swabs which they send straight to the lab because they pretty well know it’s going to come back with message reading something like, “bad luck, the house your client is buying was a crack factory.”
Doing a pest and building and drug test seems to be the latest thing in WA, but will it become a normal part of the home buying procedure here?
People I spoke to think it will become normalised. And it’s not cheap.
Expect to pay around $550 for the Covidlike test and if that comes back with positive swabs be prepared to cough up again when they go to the lab for verification. Life sure is becoming too complicated.
ORGANIC EDGE
The Chooks have gone organic. Is there anything NRL clubs won’t do when it comes to preparation aimed at bringing home the 2023 premiership?
This year the Sydney Roosters – third on the NRL ladder - have gone all hippy when it comes to food.
I read where the club’s former high profile fullback Anthony Minichiello and coach Trent Robinson have come up with an organic food regime designed to give the players a sharper edge out on the field.
Meat pies, sugary foods, canola oil, soft drinks, in fact all processed foods are ‘out’ while biodynamic, organic tucker like chicken and beef is ‘in’.
It’s the past being revisited.
In 2013 the Chooks had an organic food vendor who would bring his truck to the Sydney Cricket Ground each week so the fellers could put the bib on after training instead of adjourning to the nearest pub for parmageddon and chips hosed down with VB. They won the grand final that season. In 2018, the pre-season diet regime for Roosters’ players included 24 hour fasting and eating activated charcoal and seaweed which, we are told, is great for your gut.
Something must have clicked down there between the oesophagus and the small intestine because in 2018 and 2019 they won the grand final.
Late last year, sensing that eating habits during Covid had slipped back to the freewheelin’, anything-goes Chico Roll era, Robinson and Minichiello came up with the organic plan for 2023.
My gut feel is that seaweed and charcoal might have been back on the 2023 pre-season menu as well.
Isn’t all this a far cry from the days when blokes like Artie Beetson and Wally Lewis were just as likely to have a puff on a durrie and take a bite out of a pie at half time?
Mind you, that didn’t stop them winning their fair share of games.