Drug growers changing tactics, say police

Police say the approach of drug growers is changing as they plant smaller plantations. File photo / NZ Herald

Police hunting down illegal drug plantations around the country say the approach of growers is changing as they plant smaller plantations, hoping to lower the risk of discovery.

Illegal growers were also not setting booby traps the way they did a few years ago to catch police searching for hidden plantations, said Detective Senior Sergeant Scott McGill from the police national headquarters.

Over summer police seized or destroyed 97.000 plants and 82 firearms, arrested 726 people, and recovered $230,000 in stolen property. They also found seven clan labs. In the same period the summer before, police seized 110,000 plants and 105 firearms, arrested 912 people and recovered stolen property worth $290,000.

Mr McGill said police were no longer finding as many booby traps, probably because growers were spreading their illegal planting over smaller plantations.

"The general plots we are going to into are not protected from humans. They are more protected from possums and the like, stopping them from eating their plants.

"We are not seeing the booby traps these days like we did in the past,'' Mr McGill said.

"I think the attitude of growers might have changed, it is a win-some, lose-some attitude.

"In the past they grew in larger plots. They are growing in smaller plots now and in various locations, trying to scatter their planting so we may pick up one or two but may not pick up the whole lot."

In the past police said booby traps included loaded firearms and razor barriers to catch people stumbling across hidden plots.

"We still find offenders with loaded firearms in the houses, but not very often would we find them guarding a plot with a loaded firearm.''

Mr McGill said growers should realise police would not back off.

"Cannabis use and the issues caused by cannabis use in New Zealand is a major problem for our population," he said.

- NZPA