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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Aus:Gang Behind Drug House Cluster Simon Kirby Adelaide Now Friday 16 May 2008 Four raids since Monday on houses within dozens of metres of each other have reaped a haul of more than a thousand cannabis plants worth $8 million. All four houses - in the suburb of Blair Athol - had similar modifications, including false walls and secret tunnels to conceal sophisticated hydroponic set-ups. The two-storey brick homes had been effectively transformed into greenhouses capable of producing a $20 million crop, police said. The two latest raids, yesterday and today, on houses on The Kraal Drive netted almost 500 cannabis plants worth an estimated $2.2 million in total. Police today launched Operation Moonlight to investigate links between the "hydro houses" and to discover if any more remained in the area. Chief Inspector Bryan Doyle of Campbelltown police said it was likely that a criminal syndicate was responsible for transforming the quiet suburb into a cannabis hotspot. "A fair amount of capital has been invested in purchasing and altering the houses," he told AAP. "It would certainly point towards some kind of organisation." South East Asian Crime Squad detectives will investigate whether the gang has connections outside Australia. The criminals may have chosen Blair Athol for the multi-million-dollar operation because of its quiet nature, Chief Insp Doyle said. Most of the "dormitory" suburb's residents work elsewhere and spend little time in the area, he said. The spaciousness of the relatively new houses would also have been attractive. John Francois, who lives next door to one of the raided homes, told Fairfax Media he had seen a man named Jimmy coming in and out after he bought the property last year. He described Jimmy as Asian in appearance with very little English. "He told me he had a bakery in Wollongong but, apart from that, we reallydidn't speak very much," Mr Francois said. "I didn't see him come and go a lot. He kept to himself." The latest seizures followed a raid yesterday morning on a house on Blair Athol Drive, which runs off The Kraal Drive, in which a 54-year-old man was arrested. He was charged with two counts of cultivating a commercial quantity of cannabis and refused bail to appear at Campbelltown Local Court today. Police allegedly found cannabis plants worth $1.5 million inside the house following a tip-off from the public. The Blair Athol operation started on Monday, when police found cannabis plants worth $4.2 million in another house on The Kraal Drive. More than 500 cannabis plants were seized in that raid, ranging in size from seedlings to plants 1.5 metres tall. Police were also looking for possible links with a home raided in nearby Bradbury on Saturday. That house was also kitted out with a hydroponic system, and police netted 150 mature plants in the raid. http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23703763-5005962,00.html
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