Drug raiders ram their way into Mt Eden pharmacy

Thieves crashed a 4WD through the pharmacy's roller door. Picture / Dean Purcell

A group of raiders smashed a 4WD vehicle through a chemist's shop door to steal pseudoephedrine-based products worth as much as $60,000 on the drugs market.

A stolen blue Mitsubishi rammed the shop's large roller door about 4.10am yesterday. The manager of the Mt Eden Pharmacy, Lorraine Balfour, said: "I know the vehicle is blue - there are bits of it all through my shop.

"There was a fair amount of force used and it appears they backed the truck in to the shop - it was just a very destructive mess really."

Ms Balfour said staff in a shop across the road saw the incident and called the police before the alarm was activated.

A neighbour saw one person, possibly a young man, waiting in the vehicle while the others were in the pharmacy "for about five minutes".

The group took at least 60 packets of pseudoephedrine-based products, Codral and Sudafed, which in turn will probably be used for the manufacture of P or sold on the black market.

They then ransacked Ms Balfour's upstairs office, taking a small amount of cash and a laptop she had only recently bought.

Ms Balfour said the burglary showed how far those involved with the production of P would go to "inflict misery" on other people.

She said pharmacies did not usually keep much pseudoephedrine-based material on their premises because it was restricted.

"I'm just grateful it didn't happen during the day. If they're that determined to get the stuff you have to ask what lengths they will go to."

Police confirmed forensic teams were examining the vehicle that was used in the break-in. It was found on a street near Mt Eden Village.

The group was last seen heading towards Newmarket in another vehicle.

A police spokesman said the yield of pseudoephedrine from these cold and flu products was not as high as it was from Contac NT, a cold remedy being imported illegally from China.

He said these types of raids were uncommon as pharmacies did not stock large quantities of pseudoephedrine-based products.

But the 60 packets of flu tablets, which sold for about $19 a pack, could produce as much as 60 grams of pure methamphetamine which had an estimated street value of $60,000.