How police are addressing drug offences in the region

Illicit drug use is a complex and insidious societal problem that affects individuals, their families and fuels harm to the wider community - from road trauma to sexual assaults, family violence and addiction leading to robberies and aggravated burglaries to fund the next hit.

The most recent estimate is that illicit drug use costs the nation $8.2 billion each year - from the cost of law enforcement and justice to health costs and social rehabilitation.

Illicit drug use has been steadily increasing in Victoria since 2007. While people in their 20s continue to be the most likely age group to use illicit drugs, older people are increasingly using them too.

According to wastewater analysis, while cocaine and heroin use is higher in Melbourne, methamphetamine (especially ice), oxycodone, fentanyl and MDMA use is higher in regional areas.

In the Ballarat region, methamphetamine is the illicit drug which most commonly brings people to police's attention while the other most commonly used illicit drug in the region is cannabis.

Data released by the Crime Statistics Agency reveals there was a huge increase in drug possession offences recorded in Ballarat and Pyrenees from 2018 to 2019 (from 304 to 402), while there were 316 possession offences recorded in the year ending December 2020.

There was also a big increase in Moorabool, Golden Plains and Hepburn in 2019, when there were 107 offences recorded, which jumped to 195 offences recorded in 2020.

Both Investigation and Response Inspector Bob Heaney and the Divisional Response Unit's Senior Sergeant Shaun Bingham previously worked in a joint taskforce with the Australian Federal Police before coming to work in the region.

The primary objective of this taskforce is to intercept drug importations before they make their way into the community.

Inspector Heaney said methamphetamine was now mostly manufactured overseas and illegally imported into the country, so stopping it at the ports and airports before it gets into the community was key.

But some importations do slip through and are dispersed among communities.

A designated drug team is embedded in the region's Divisional Response Unit. Focusing on mid-tier distribution, which is ultimately a couple of steps removed from the user, Detective Senior Sergeant Bingham said those in the unit aimed to cut off the drug supply to the local community.

"If you cut off the supply then users don't have anything to take so community harm is reduced due to lesser use. That's our focus - to limit supply - so the end harm caused by the use of it is limited. Because in theory, if less people are using them the less harm is caused," he said.

To address drug use and the associated community harm, Victoria Police's drug strategy for 2020-2025 has four pillars - prevention, disruption and supply reduction, treatment and support and harm reduction.

Through this strategy police are both continuing to disrupt and dismantle drug networks and arrest and prosecute dealers, but are also working alongside the community and partner agencies to educate, prevent harm and connect people with treatment and support.

While the 10 members of the DRU analyse intelligence and manage ongoing serious drug investigations, there is a holistic approach to reducing drug harm: proactive police go to schools and engage with youth, uniform officers patrol in the community while the highway patrol plays an important role conducting drug tests and intercepting drug-affected drivers, which often leads to wider investigations.

Local police also have close ties to government and community agencies.

Detective Senior Sergeant Bingham said referring people in their first contact with police to diversion programs and support networks was important, especially in the case of youth or in regards to family violence, to prevent the cycle of repeat offending or break the cycle of generational offending.

While distribution networks are constantly evolving, distributors are more frequently leveraging digital platforms. Encryption and cryptocurrencies are constantly creating new challenges in tracing this criminal activity.

At a local level, drugs are both physically brought into the community by individuals, but increasingly they are also being distributed across the country by mail.

Recently police have been assisting the Border Force in Melbourne to detect drugs at the mail sorting centre, after an increase in the method during 2020 when the ring of steel and border closures provided physical barriers.

The number of people involved in drug distribution changes each year.

For the year ending December 2020 there were 75 drug trafficking offences recorded in Ballarat and Pyrenees, in addition to 21 recorded from Moorabool, Golden Plains and Hepburn.

A wealthy country with much of the population having some disposable income, it makes Australia a profitable country for drug distributors: drugs can be sold for a higher price, meaning a bigger profit ends up in the pockets of distributors.

Inspector Heaney said the "insatiable appetite for drug use" in Australia was what made it so attractive to drug manufacturers and traffickers.

"There is always going to be someone who wants to profit from it because there's so many people that actually want to purchase it," he said.

Rural properties are an attractive place to set-up a cannabis growhouse as they tend to be isolated so there is less chance of people stumbling across them, Detective Senior Sergeant Bingham said.

Last year police recorded 21 drug cultivation offences in Ballarat and Pyrenees, in addition to six offences where a person was found to be in possession of drug manufacturing equipment.

In Moorabool, Golden Plains and Hepburn there were 12 cultivation offences recorded and one offence where a person was found to be in possession of manufacturing equipment.

Detective Senior Sergeant Bingham said community harm associated with cannabis was scaleable. At the top end it funds organised crime, "other more lucrative drug transactions" and importation of other illicit drugs. Disrupting these cases is the priority focus of police.

In recent years there have been a number of massive drug crops found in the region. A recent example played out a number of weeks ago, when investigators found 1300 marijuana plants at a property in Ross Creek.

Receiving various snippets of information from the community eventually led police to search the property, where they found about 500kg of cannabis.

While internal intelligence processes help to paint a broad picture of what is playing out in the community, investigators also rely on the many eyes out in the community.

Detective Senior Sergeant Bingham said receiving information was always valuable to investigators working in this space.

Even if it seems small or insignificant, he encouraged anyone with information about drug use, distribution, supply or cultivation to report it as it might be the piece of information police require to act.

Information could be about unusual activity in homes or premises, constant visitors or people gathering for short periods of time.

Erratic behaviour and newfound and rapid wealth are also potential indicators of drug activity.

Information can be shared anonymously and investigations can proceed without the involvement of the person who reported it.

"Every piece of intelligence is beneficial to us. We do have our own internal intelligence and self-start on that intelligence but our investigations are also instigated and assisted by information we get from the public.

"If anyone is reading this story and thinks they know anything, rest assured that if you report it the information will get to us and factor into what we do."

If you have any information contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or file a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au/report-a-crime