Deals on wheels in staff carparks

A methamphetamine pipe. File photo / Martin Sykes

A team of former police dog handlers now specialising in drugs and explosives detection say they have discovered a disturbing and growing trend - mobile P labs in workplace carparks.

Elite Dog Services managing director Bruce Howat, who has been in the business for nine years, said cannabis was still the most widely-used drug in workplaces, the company's three dog teams had seen an increase of almost 150 per cent in P finds in the past 12 months.

The ex-Hamilton cop of 14 years said discoveries ranged from employees carrying "point bags" for personal use to full-blown methamphetamine operations in the back of vehicles.

In the last half of last year, EDS teams found four mobile P labs operating in workplace carparks.

"The cooks are going into the carparks of large corporations with labs set up in the boots of their cars and staff are coming out and purchasing their P during morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea," Mr Howat said.

"These guys have a miniature operation in the boot. You can't get much fresher than that - they just go in and do a brew up there. It's a carpark that the public cruise in and out of and no one takes much notice of it."

Mr Howat would not reveal where the finds were made, but said the company was seeing more business in Auckland's CBD "at call centres and places like that".

"The other dynamic we are noticing with P is that it ignores social boundaries and organisational boundaries - it's at workplaces you really would not expect."

Mr Howat said his teams operated mostly without police involvement, but reported mobile P labs immediately.

He said the mobile labs were potentially highly explosive.

"If they had a motor accident you'd have members of the public there diving in to help and do the right thing but they'd suffer serious consequences themselves."

Mr Howat, who says his dog teams make busts 95 per cent of the time on their workplace checks despite employees being given ample warning of their visits, warned employers to keep a close eye on suspicious behaviour at work.

He thinks P is the most dangerous thing our society has faced.

"When I was in the police the only police ever killed on duty were in domestic disputes."

But in the past two years, every police who had been killed had died in a drug-related incident.

"There has been a significant shift to where we are going as a society."