Police seize $300,000 worth of drugs in Chch raid

Press, 12 April 1980, Page 1

Police seize $300,000 worth of drugs in Chch raid

More than $300,000 worth of heroin and cocaine was seized when Christchurch detectives and customs officers raided the St Albans home of an alleged “Mr Big” in the city’s drug scene yesterday.

The haul, the result of a long police investigation, was the biggest in Christchurch for several years. A company director, aged 24, was airrested when detectives and customs officers swooped on a house in Derby Street about 10.30 a.m. The man will appear in the District Court, this morning on two charges involving the importation of drugs. The raid has ted to police inquiries overseas and throughout New Zealand. The head of the Christchurch police drug squad (Detective Senior-Sefgeant M. J. Muddiman) said a police team had started raiding Christchurch addresses at 7 a.m. yesterday. “We struck the right-

one at 10.30 a.m.,” he said. About . 120 grams of heroin and 140 grams of cocaine were seized at the Derby Street house, although the weights would have toi be confirmed by the Department of Scientific and Industrial - Research, Detective SeniorSergeant Muddiman said. The drugs would have a street value of $300,000 or more, according to the police. The arrested man offered no resistance. No firearms were involved. Detective Senior-Ser-geant Muddiman said the raid was the result of concentrated inquiries over some years which had been stepped up in the last two months. He said the investigations would now concentrate on “certain syndicates” outside Christ-

church and overseas, and on a drug distribution system in Christchurch. The successful raid had been a direct result of close co-operation between the police and the Customs Department, he said. The police were not looking for any other person over the importing of the seized drugs. The co-ordinator of the National Drug Intelligence Bureau (Detective SeniorSergeant P. Fitzharris) said last month that the heroin supply to New Zealand had been reduced, to a “trickle,” and had been replaced by LSD as New Zealand’s main , imported drug problem. “We cannot say that there, is absolutely no heroin left, but there is very little, about, and what there is is for a very tight little market,” he said.