About two thousand Sydney people are about to get an unexpected text message on their mobile phones. It will be from the police and it will tell them that their phone number was detected on the phone records of drug dealers arrested in a recent police swoop. This will not be a threatening message and it will simply request that the phone's owner contact the police with any information that may be applicable.
That will create panic in many circles because the police have just arrested twenty-eight men and three women in a brazen drug bust that has seen cocaine availability replicate the pizza trade. Simply place your order by phone and a friendly courier will be on his or her way to make that delivery.
This was crime on a well organized basis and operation " Northrop " has been gaining information since September. It culminated in an arrest in the city that set off police raids on homes in Wolli Creek, Sydney, Penshurst, Concord, Paddington and Campsie. This ever widening net has the expectation of more seizures of both drugs and money.
The impetus was mainly on cocaine distribution, but the gang also supplied MDMA and the raids seized more than $ 120,000 in cash - and two fully loaded firearms were detected in the swoop. It seems that the drug supply is now so common that it is adopting commercial supply methods in defiance of the police.
There is now a police expectation that they know the identity of two thousand Sydney residents who have at one time bought drugs from this criminal gang. Finding their phone number on a drug criminal's phone is not a crime in itself, but there is a reasonable assumption that they may turn to a new supplier to feed their habit.
That is an incredibly valuable information source that police may use to their advantage. Anyone getting that message from the police would assume that there is a good chance that their phone may be monitored in the future. Many will discard that phone and seek a new network and a new number, but that in itself may be motivation for police undercover surveillance.
No doubt it will create suspicion in many families. If a family member has a hidden drug habit that police text message creates a dilemma. Ignore it and that might result in a uniformed officer making a house call to follow up - with embarrassing results.
In nothing else this drug bust illustrates that what are called " party drugs " are now so common that seeking a dealer in a grotty back street no longer satisfies demand. The profits are so rewarding that the drug trade is adopting commercial practice and buyer expectation involves home delivery. That sharply increases the risk of exposure.
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