Cop‘s freeze on ice
But Northern Rivers blitz provess cannabis still a priority
THE no-nonsense cop who dismantled one of Sydney’s most violent street gangs and cut his teeth investigating the state’s worst bikie massacre is vowing to bring down the ice scourge “destroying families and communities” in our country towns.
The Bulletin can reveal former Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad commander Detective Superintendant Peter “Silver” McErlain is now at the helm of a team of more than 100 officers who will concentrate on fighting the ice epidemic in rural areas.
The newly merged NSW Police Drug and Firearms unit now includes a “mix” of officers with backgrounds such as chemistry and the law.
While in charge of MEOCS, the 60-year-old helped to bring down the notorious Brothers For Life gang.
Now he has the incredibly addictive, deadly and cheap drug ice in his sights — and already he has hit northern NSW.
“Ice is absolutely killing us in the rural areas,” Supt McErlain said.
“It’s one of the biggest issues in terms of violence, in terms of the gun crime that’s associated with it and in terms of destroying whole communities and kids’ lives. “It’s a bad, bad thing.” His plan is to send his crack teams bush – especially in the state’s west – to carry out investigations with officers from local area commands who are often strapped for time and resources.
“It’s often hard resourcewise to combat this type of thing and what I want to do is try to get as many resources and expertise we can to the rural side of things – ice is one of the major challenges we face,” he said.
Going bush also makes sense for the officers in his squad trained in the firearms side of things.
“Those firearms thefts out of rural properties – nine times out of 10 they fall into the hand of crooks, so that’s a worry in itself.
“We intend to increase our presence there.”
And while ice was the biggest issue for country towns, his new squad would also zero in on cannabis operations.
Supt McErlain spent the past week with his cannabis team ripping out hundreds of plants from hippie communes and properties across the Northern Rivers region.
He said targeting cannabis was still a priority because it “fuels organised crime”.
“What comes with organised crime? Violence and death,” he said.
As a detective he worked on the 1984 Milperra Massacre in which seven people were killed after tensions between the Comanchero and Bandidos bikie clubs reached boiling point.
The bloodshed, also known as the Father’s Day Massacre, led to dramatically tougher gun laws in NSW.
Supt McErlain has also been the commander at Kings Cross, Maroubra, St George and Liverpool Local Area Command.