14 people charged after Bunbury raids

More than 60 South West District Police raided 12 properties and charged 14 people with 29 offences in the Bunbury area this morning.

South West Inspector Peter Morrissey said the third wave of Operation Collective laid charges including possession of methamphetamine and cannabis with intention to sell and supply and cultivating cannabis.

The two biggest cannabis seizures were collected from properties in Dalyellup and Gelorup, equating to about 8kg kilograms, Insp. Morrissey said.

Mr Morrissey said among the other items collected were homemade tasers, firearms, big quantities of ammunition and 14kg of copper tubing.

He said the South West community was being destroyed by people who were using and selling drugs.

“Meth is a problem in Bunbury (which) is a microcosm of society, so there is a meth problem in metropolitan Perth and in WA,” he said.

“We’ve seized in the last month in excess of 20kg of cannabis, 50g of methamphetamine, MDA or ecstasy, LSD, magic mushrooms, stolen property, vehicles, weapons, firearms, ammunition and cash.

As a result of the operation over the past month, 54 people have been charged with 139 offences and Insp. Morrissey said this was because the community was behind helping the police catch offenders.

The operation in Bunbury today with 65 officers was a direct reaction to the Crime Stoppers Dob in a Dealer Campaign launched five weeks ago, he said.

He urged the community to contact Crime Stoppers if they noticed any suspicious activity in their street.

People coming and going from a house at all hours of the night and only staying for a short time was a good example of drug dealers operating in a suburban suburb, he said.

“If you are in dealing drugs and you are dealing in stolen property, we are coming to get you, we know who you are, we get the information from our public that we are here to look after and make sure their community ambience is preserved,” he said.