
By Luke Costin in Sydney
Drug-laced cookies and confectionary have been seized alongside more than $260,000 in cash from an alleged UberEats-style cannabis delivery service.
Some 39 people have been charged with drug supply and related offences after numerous syndicates were found advertising prohibited drugs for sale on an open-source website, NSW police said on Thursday.
Several were caught in vehicles packed with dozens of bags of cannabis and other items including vapes, cannabis cookies and confectionery containing THC, the main active ingredient of cannabis.
More than 1500 individual bags of cannabis and $262,000 in cash were seized during the targeted arrests.
A 32-year-old man was allegedly caught in a home in Arncliffe, near Sydney Airport, with vacuum-sealed plastic bags containing cannabis, weighing over five kilograms, more than $5,000 in cash, an electronic money counter and mobile telephones.
A hydroponics business to which he was allegedly linked was then raided, resulting in the discovery of 43 kilograms of cannabis and other items.
The man has been bailed on four charges including drug supply. He is next due to face court in May.
A second man, 55, is due in court in April after allegedly being stopped in a car in Bondi with 42 bags of cannabis and 24 pre-rolled joints.
Police also found cannabis THC cookies and $610 in cash.
He faces three charges including drug supply and has been granted bail by a court.
The illicit cannabis crackdown comes months after police leaders attended the NSW Drug Summit, in which harm minimisation experts pressed for decriminalisation of small-scale possession.
“If we really want to undo the many harms of prohibition, we need to shift from the black market to a regulated market,” Harm Reduction Australia executive director Annie Madden told the summit in December.
The push has been dismissed by the Minns Labor government as irresponsible.
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