6 Jan 2010

400 arrests from drug crackdown

6:10 pm on 6 January 2010

Police have made nearly 400 arrests for drug-related offences as part of a crackdown on methamphetamine production over the past two months.

In total, 380 police staff worked on the operation, which netted hundreds of thousand of dollars of methamphetamine, cannabis and stolen property around the country.

In December alone, 19 meth labs were discovered.

National crime manager Detective Superintendent Win Van der Velde says the operation was part of a police effort to disrupt the supply of methamphetamine and reduce the crime that is related to the drug's production.

He believes various crime networks have been disrupted during the past two months. However, he says police are realistic and it is only a matter of time before those people will be replaced.