Woman fighting for life after police seize record number of drugs at festival
A young woman is fighting for life and five others are facing serious charges after police made a record drug seizure at a Sydney dance party.
Fourteen thousand people packed the Sydney Showgrounds venue for The Midnight Mafia festival at the Sydney Showground on Saturday.
Police were out in numbers and they were kept busy.
NSW Police South West Metro Region Enforcement Squad Detective Chief Inspector Gus Viera said police were shocked by the amount of drugs at the event.
“The amount of people caught with a number of large prohibited drug offences is outstanding and it leaves us speechless actually,” he said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it, the sheer brazenness of it is incredible.”
Four people were also rushed to hospital, with a 25-year-old woman still fighting for life on Sunday.
Police searched 187 people and more than 3500 MDMA capsules were seized in the operation at the festival, which made use of sniffer dogs.
Thirteen people were subsequently charged with drug supply while 32 people were issued with court notices for drug possession.
Among those arrested were a 21-year-old woman allegedly found in possession of almost 1600 MDMA capsules and an amount of cocaine; another 21-year-old woman allegedly carrying nearly 550 pills; and a 19-year-old woman allegedly caught with 200 capsules.
During the event attended by 14,000 people, 256 people sought medical treatment and three were taken to hospital for drug-related health issues.
Detective Chief Inspector Gus Viera said he was greatly concerned by the large number of pills seized.
“We saw more drugs seized today than recent events, one of the largest we’ve seen, which clearly shows our messaging is not getting through,” he said on Sunday.
