Facebook used to prompt drug raids

Police have been snooping on people's Facebook profiles, and using the evidence to carry out drug raids.

The monitoring has been exposed by members of a blackmarket Facebook group, who complained of receiving letters out of the blue from police, warning them they were being watched.


A letter to a Facebook user from Canterbury police warns that the user might wish to "review" their membership of an online group suspected of aiding illegal drug deals. Photo: stuff.co.nz

One unidentified user, who received a letter dated July 15, warned that their membership of a group suspected to be aiding illegal drug deals had been noticed.

They might wish to 'review” their membership of the group, the letter suggested, and it came with a card for a drug abuse helpline stapled to it.

'Police have been monitoring your Facebook profile and established that you are engaged in a Facebook group that actively sells and trades in controlled drugs,” the letter said.

'Committing offences against [drug laws] can lead to penalties, including imprisonment.”

Police confirmed on Monday that they were monitoring social media pages, and sometimes using the evidence they found to mount raids.

The letter from did not make it clear which Facebook group was being watched, and police would not say.

But it warned the recipient the page in question was suspected to be operating a black market in breach of drugs and psychoactive substances laws.

Popular Facebook buy and sell pages such as 'Hustle Live” have attracted criticism previously as police found people were trading stolen and illicit goods on the forums.

'Anyone who is using the internet to sell or distribute controlled drugs should think twice, as police are determined to disrupt these activities,” Detective Senior Sergeant Jason Stewart says.

'We recognise addiction to controlled drugs contributes to crime. This is about encouraging addicts to seek help and break the cycle of crime.”

The letter was generating plenty of online debate on Monday about whether police monitoring of social media activity amounted to a breach of privacy.

Some say those 'stupid” enough to buy and sell drugs online deserved to get caught. 'Nothing is safe or private in the cyber world, people. Some people are just idiots,” one Facebook user wrote.

Stewart says: 'The internet is a public space. We follow up on these Facebook pages when we become aware of them and follow through with letters, visits and in some cases search warrants.”

Police national headquarters said: 'It's safe to say that other districts carry out similar operations when necessary.”

The rates at which today's criminals were peddling products, and organising themselves, has led police to order recently that all officers to be trained in cyber crime-fighting by 2017.

Privacy expert and lawyer Kathryn Dalziel says people could not have an expectation of privacy on social media when it came to their activity in public groups. Police were entitled to use online posts as an evidence-gathering tool if they suspected crime.

'There are good things happening and bad things happening on Facebook,” explains Kathryn, 'and if it's on an open group, police are not doing anything illegal by looking at it, then contacting people."

What was less certain was whether police were getting evidence from social media through using undercover officers.

Dalziel says police were exempt from Privacy Act restrictions, to a point, when performing law-enforcement duties.

But if they were creating fake profiles to gain access to private posts online, it was possible they would require a search warrant, she says.

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3 comments

Spot the difference?

Posted on 21-07-2015 15:20 | By YOGI BEAR

Trading for real and in person and via social media, that is still a crime you know folks. Maybe they are a bit slow, maybe they think to clever to be spotted? Whatever, time to go down for it all. I think they are very lucky to have been sent the letter and warned in advance, if peddling on the street they would be charged immediately, unless of course you are a resident of South Auckland where you are not allowed to be charged so as to improve the offender numbers statistics.


Softly softly plod

Posted on 21-07-2015 15:38 | By maildrop

Mmm...nothing like a softly worded letter to drug dealers to let them know how to avoid arrest. Drug dealing is serious and is the root of other crimes and social cost yet this is the extent of resources applied to police it. Amazing.


Well

Posted on 22-07-2015 09:06 | By Capt_Kaveman

Posting stuff on FB about drugs or stolen property is not really that intelligent is it


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