MARY ARGUE
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Police have arrested a woman accused of selling cannabis to high schoolers after a raid on a Greytown house.
Police recovered more than 50g of cannabis packaged for sale in a search warrant executed at the property on Wednesday morning.
The 30-year-old was charged with possessing cannabis for supply and is scheduled to appear in Masterton District Court on July 11.
Wairarapa Sergeant Richie Day said his team had received numerous reports from the community about the woman selling drugs to teenagers.
“This activity is a real concern, and we are very grateful to the community for bringing these issues
to us.”
Day said a significant number of high school students had been targeted.
“We’re not exactly talking about one or two underage people. It’s a significant number.
“We’ve had reports the house was fairly busy.”
Day said police seized 50g of cannabis and drug paraphernalia during the search.
“It was a significant amount of cannabis that had been packaged for sale.”
He said 12 officers, including Wellington support staff and a police dog team, executed the warrant.
Day said officers did not know how long the woman had been selling to teenagers but said inquiries were ongoing to identify and support the students who were targeted.
“It’s very difficult as they’ll be worried about getting in trouble, and we need parents to be onboard.
“But we’re not targeting anyone else in relation to this. We can’t emphasise that enough.”
Day said there was no suggestion at this stage of the investigation that the woman had sold to students outside Greytown, and he encouraged the community to continue reporting anything unusual or suspicious to the police.
“You may think your information is inconsequential, but it could be the missing piece that enables us to put together the details which lead to a prosecution.”
Stuff reported last month that Greytown high school, Kuranui College, was standing by its plan to use random drug dog searches on school premises.
Kuranui College principal Simon Fuller said the random searches were part of a strategy to deal with the “societal influence of drugs, alcohol, and vaping”.
Kuranui College was contacted for comment but did not respond in time for publication.
