Eleven people were arrested and 17 charges were laid in a Hunter-wide, high-visibility police operation on the weekend.
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More than 100 officers from Hunter Basin police districts (Port Stephens-Hunter, Hunter Valley, Newcastle City and Lake Macquarie) as well as the Traffic & Highway Patrol, Police Dog Unit, Strike Force Utah, PolAir and Police Transport Command conducted the operation between 4pm on Saturday and 4am Sunday.
The officers were deployed to several suburbs across the region capturing areas such as Newcastle, Maitland, Raymond Terrace and Cessnock.
Preliminary results from Operation Surge show:
- 11 people arrested
- 17 charges laid
- 10 possess/supply drug
- 145 RBT conducted
- 4 PCA charges
- 40 traffic infringements issued
- 74 licensed premises checks
- 11 juvenile cautions
Of note, a 20-year-old man was arrested at a licensed premises on Hunter Street, Newcastle West, for allegedly being in possession of 69 MDMA capsules. He was charged with supply prohibited drug and granted conditional bail to face Newcastle Local Court on February 27.
The aim of Operation Surge was to manoeuvre resources where they're needed in a fluid, reactive environment, with the assistance of real-time intelligence from a single control base.
Operation Surge Commander, Superintendent Danny Sullivan APM said the second roll-out of Operation Surge was a great success, with officers able to respond in numbers across the wider community, regardless of their home police district.
"Operation Surge was created to merge police resources across several Hunter suburbs, being able to move freely and deploy to wherever the demand and need is at any given time," he said.
"This operation allows police to engage with the public in highly visible areas and in vast numbers.
"For the second deployment of Operation Surge, we wanted to focus on utilising the real-time intelligence from our analysts to target repeat offenders within each police district.
"Police will continue to put operations like 'Surge' into practice; those in the community who wish to cause trouble need to know we will be there, and we will be there in large numbers."
Operation Surge will be continually rolled-out through various deployments in 2020.
