Police lay charges over drugs, guns

South West drug dealing took a hit in March when police across the region joined forces to arrest and charge 12 people with 29 offences.

Police searched 12 properties in the week from March 25 and in many cases found high-grade, sophisticated set-ups.

The charges included possession with intent to sell or supply, cultivating a prohibited drug and charges relating to firearms and stolen property.

South West Acting Insp. Mark Smith said Operation Charisma was just the start.

“This is only the start of ongoing policing actions,” he said.

“The message we’re putting to people dealing and distributing drugs is you need to be worried and stop what you’re doing.

“If you are dealing drugs in the community, you need to realise that you will get caught.”

Acting Insp. Smith finished collecting data from Operation Charisma on Monday and said the amount of drugs being cultivated revealed a concerning trend.

“We used to talk about ounces and grams and these days we’re talking about kilograms,” he said.

“We’re also concerned about the trend that cannabis cultivation is in a domestic setting.”

He said one such set up was found at a $40,000 cannabis haul in a house in Boyanup on March 27.

“We also found 280 cannabis plants in the Pemberton area with an estimated value of $1.5 million,” Acting Insp. Smith said.

“There are still further inquiries about more persons-of-interest in relation to that drug find.”

Acting Insp. Smith said trends showed Bunbury, Busselton and Manjimup had the highest rate of drug dealing once population was taken into account.

Many of the searches during Operation Charisma were sparked by tips from the community, as well as police intelligence.

“The information we’re receiving from the public these days is of high-value and is very specific,” Acting Insp. Smith said.

“People shouldn’t feel guilty or un-Australian for dobbing in a drug dealer.

“In fact it would be un-Australian to let this kind of behaviour continue.”

Acting Insp. Smith said legislation gave police greater powers to investigate and seize property related to selling or supplying drugs.

“Over the last few months, offenders have had freezing notices placed on assets and in some cases, their homes,” he said.