Image: online.
Esperance police are cracking down on drug dealers after a spike in the number of drivers they stopped with Methamphetamine in their system.
Since May 5, the police recorded nine incidents of a person driving with an illicit substance in their system, 18 cases of possession of a prohibited drug, one charge of possession with intention to sell and 21 charges of offering to sell a prohibited drug.
Esperance Police sergeant Chris Taylor said Methamphetamine had become more prevalent in Esperance.
“Drugs have come into town a couple of times in the last four weeks,” Sergeant Taylor said.
“Just this week we charged five people with possession.
“It’s not a few [cases], it’s a couple every week we’re finding recently, and people have been charged numerous times over the weeks.”
Sergeant Taylor said: “there’s a strong market for [methamphetamine] in Esperance” but he said so far police had been successfully tracking down the dealers.
“The people we’ve been stopping have given us info suggesting where its coming from and when…,” he said.
According to Sergeant Taylor, the Esperance police also encountered a lot of Methamphetamine-fuelled incidents not related to driving.
“It’s an addictive drug and people want it, not caring too much about their brain and health,” he said.
“It affects people in different ways, but it can make people violent — there can be relationship breakdowns and domestic violence where one or both parties are using the drug.
“For police it gives us more jobs we need to attend and help the community.”
