Interesting neighbours!

Sometimes dope is not just grown on the neighbours property, as years ago I was talking to a farmer who found a field of dope growing hidden in some trees on his property, complete with irrigation from a creek, so he ripped some of the pipes out, which he thought would suffice until he reported it to the police. That night someone fired a shot into his house, luckily or intentionally above head height. On 2nd thoughts he decided not to report it, but left things alone for that growing season and all the stuff disappeared and luckily didn't return the next season!

Not the first time that this sort of thing has happened around here. As I mentioned earlier, the Stoccos were caught only two properties from here, and the reason they thought they were safe there was that the property they had holed up on was growing crops that would not want police attention.

And going back about forty years, one landowner about fifteen kilometres from here, who, today, is more or less accepted as a community member, was subject to a large scale police raid that uncovered a very large crop. He spent a couple of years as a guest of Her Majesty, before being released by NSW's "Minister for Early Release", who (from memory) himself ended up with about ten years.

According to local legend (generally considered to be fact) he had been bought the property by his wife's family (Sicilian, from Griffith), and given it free of charge on condition that he grew one crop for the family, but if caught, he was to say nobody else was involved, and he would cop any time.

I think it is simply that there is a lot of bush here, and there are properties that are on dead end or little used roads, so not many nosy passers-by, making it an attractive area for people who don't want others poking noses into their business.

Some years ago I was out in whoop whoop in a national park in western Vic looking for aboriginal art with a mate.

We came across a 2 storey hut built next to a creek, purpose unknown.

All the stuff must have been carried in by hand at least a couple of k's.

Had a chance meeting with a local the same day who explained that everyone in the area knew what was going on, including the cops who waited till they'd put the finishing touches on the hut before busting them. [thumbsupbig]

In the same park 20kms away I found a little hand gardening fork that had recently been dropped, again in the middle of nowhere. Pretty obvious there was a bit of horticulture going on somewhere nearby.

Was back in the same area a year or so later and came across a whole stack of low metal frames resting against a fallen red gum and a whole lot of plastic folded up underneath.

All the frames are still there going rusty but the plastic has been burnt in one of a few fires since.

cheers, DL

Now this relates back to a long time ago and the Donald Mackay murder in Griffith.

The bloke who reported the marijuana crop growing first was a NSW Agriculture agronomist named AFAIR Paddy McGinnis.

The growers arranged for 2 hit men to fly from Rome to take care of the Mr McGinnis.

They looked up his address in the phone book and waited outside his house and duly shot him.

trouble was there were 2 Paddy McGinnises.

They got the wrong one.
I met him years later.
talk about the luck of the Irish (descent).
No NSW Agriculture agronomist will report on suspicious crops to this day.
Regards PhilipA

Years ago SWMBO used to work at Davie Pumps.

The police were often coming to the office trying to trace pumps that had been found during drug busts.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scarry

Years ago SWMBO used to work at Davie Pumps.

The police were often coming to the office trying to trace pumps that had been found during drug busts.

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Hydroponic gear used to go through the Public Trustee auctions as police seized goods. The coppers would get the name and addresses of purchasers and some time later pay them a visit. Lo and behold, the same goods went through the auctions again.

When we lived in Karumba there were certain parts of the Norman River you didn't go near in case someone fired a "Warning Shot".
Also, around Rvenshoe there is a blue helecopter flys about low & slow on a regular basis.
I always thought thet were spotting for fires, apparently, I'm told, they are looking for something a bit greener.
Jonesfam

Many years ago in my helicopter flying days I did a search for the police over thick government bush reserve. They knew roughly where the patch was, but the bush was that dense they could not find it on foot. We discussed being shot at but as there was only one track into the area they were sure that nobody was in there. They gave me the measured distance along the track from the main road, which I flew at what would be car speed and low and behold came right up on it! I hovered around while the copper with me directed his mates on the ground into where it was.

Apparently the thing to do is to grow it under shade trees so it can't be seen from the air - but these days the multispectral satellites can spot it even under trees - if it is getting any sunlight, it can be identified on satellite imagery.

Hence this recent lot growing as pot plants in a large shed with a lot of translucent skylights. But, a large new shed in the middle of the bush that looked as if it were deliberately out of sight of any road sort of stuck out a bit.

When my youngest daughter was in Brownies, I was the nominated badge assessor for various types of "Adventure" type badges. I usually age modified my SES training. Often, when one girl expressed an interest in a particular badge, others would also become interested.
I had a number of kids keen on navigation, so taught them the basics; read a refidex (street directory to the uneducated), compass and pacing.
For the practical assessment I chose an easily accessible but secluded, dry bush setting, that I was familiar with through SES training.
I took my daughter and her best mate, to get an idea of young kids paces, to the preparation and set up.
Amongst the sparse, thirsty looking, drought hardy, native vegetation, I spotted a stand of dark green, tall, healthy looking plants, neatly growing in a square of about 100 yards.
Being somewhat naive about certain cash crops, but highly suspicious that nature could produce such bounty in the prevailing barron, shaley wasteland, I casually asked the girls, without drawing too much attention, what they thought.
Their speculation aligned with mine, so with the responsibility of two young girl I hastily abandoned the recce and hightailed out of there.
On the way home we called into the local cop shop. The uniformed fellows at the front desk appeared interested and genuinely concerned, and reported it to the detectives upstairs.
One of the Coppers In Disguise came down and told us that it had been reported and they had checked it out, finding it to be stinking roger.
Not likely! But in the middle of the Fitzgerald Inquiry I felt discretion was the better part of valour and pursued the issue no further.
Cynical? Not me. [bigwhistle]