Seized gang assets help fight P scourge

Police, Customs and the Ministry of Health may soon have millions of dollars of ill-gotten gang money at their disposal in the battle against gangs and the drug P.

The Government announced yesterday that police had seized $7.4 million of frozen gang assets in the first two months of new legislation, which came into effect in December.

A 22-strong police unit has issued six restraining orders under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act, all related to drug offences.

The Herald understands that the number and value of the assets, held by the Official Assignee, are growing rapidly and they will soon be worth tens of millions of dollars.

The assets will remain frozen while prosecutions are mounted and, if successful, they will be passed on to the Crown. If unsuccessful, the assets will be handed back.

Prime Minister John Key announced last year, in outlining his plan to fight P, that the Government wanted to use the legislation to use the gangs' own proceeds against them.

Police, Customs and drug treatment programmes - likely to be run by the Health Ministry - will be invited to bid on the pot of millions of dollars.

A spokesman for Mr Key said yesterday that, potentially, it was a significant amount of money to boost resources.

"The idea is to use the actual money that criminals actually make out of these activities against them," he said.

Police Association president Greg O'Connor said it was an "absolutely positive" move, but he had concerns about how much the value of assets can deteriorate while criminals are being prosecuted.

"What they restrain [freeze] can be quite a bit lower than what they can actually collect. There was a boat in Dunedin that was seized after some guys were prosecuted, and by the time the decision was made, it had been allowed to deteriorate."

In his address to the opening of Parliament this week, Mr Key said that drug rehabilitation centres for P users and further resourcing of police and the Customs Service played a major role in the Government's fight against P and gangs.

Police Minister Judith Collins said yesterday that the new law had shown its worth in just two months.

"Under the previous law, a conviction was necessary before the Crown could seize criminals' ill-gotten gains. It's now sufficient to prove on the balance of probabilities that a person has unlawfully benefited from significant criminal offending."