Cement mixers used to make drugs: Qld cops

Two people have been charged after raids on Queensland homes and businesses found cement mixers were being used to make synthetic marijuana.

Cement mixers in backyard drug labs are being used to make synthetic marijuana on sale at Queensland shops, police say.

Ten homes and business in Brisbane, Rockhampton and the Gold Coast were raided on Monday and Tuesday.

Nearly $500,000 worth of the synthetic drug and ingredients, plus manufacturing equipment and packaging, were found at the properties.

"What we found concerning was the squalid conditions ... where the chemicals were being manufactured," Detective Superintendent Jon Wacker said.

"We found three cement mixers at two different locations," he said.

The product was then dried in the back of a black van, he said.

Police say the synthetic drug is being marketed as a "legal high" at tobacco outlets, sex shops and herbal stores around the state.

Adult shop owner David Piccinato, 43, is currently facing court accused of selling synthetic marijuana labelled as tea at regional Queensland sex shops.

Two people died after allegedly having adverse reactions to Piccinato's products.

However, police were unable to confirm whether the most recent raids were linked.

Det Wacker said 10 people have died from the chemical-laced drug over the past eight years.

"There's no way people can measure what is going into these mixes, (it's) just people doing backyard production of lucid dangerous drugs," he said.

"It's like playing Russian roulette. One of these days your luck is going to run out."

Queensland became the first state to ban synthetic marijuana in 2013.

Two men were arrested following this week's raids.

A 39-year-old will appear in Cleveland Magistrates Court on April 5 charged with trafficking and supplying dangerous drugs.

Another man, 52, accused of possessing drugs and regulated poison will appear in Beenleigh Magistrates Court on March 29.


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Source: AAP



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