Police Seize Thousands Of Pills Bound For Future Music Festival

Queensland police have seized half a million dollars worth of ecstasy believed to be bound for Brisbane’s Future Music Festival taking place at Doomben Racecourse today.

The police taskforce seized around 7500 ecstasy pills and $50,000 in cash in a series of raids across Brisbane and Russell Island on Friday. Acting Detective Inspector Mark Andrews said the operation was carried out on intelligence that some of the pills were being stockpiled to sell at Future Music Festival Brisbane.

“Today we have prevented over 7,500 MDMA tablets being consumed at music festivals such as the Future Festival tomorrow, helping to make all Queenslanders safer, in particular our teenagers and young adults” said Andrews.

The drugs are believed to be linked to he Bandidos bikie gang. “7500 pills is an indicator of the criminality of this syndicate and their associates, that’s easy money in the scheme of things and we’ve stopped that,” Acting Superintendent Brendan Smith told Fairfax.

“We have seen in recent months a number of people die from taking ecstasy around the country, hopefully we have prevented a death.” 17 people have been charged with 110 mostly drug-related offences, ranging from trafficking to possession. They are due to appear at Brisbane Magistrates Court today.

NSW Police went ahead with their high visibility sniffer dog drug detection operation at Future music Festival in Sydney last weekend, despite ongoing debate about the effectiveness of those types of operations.

177 people out of the 41,000 strong crowd at the Sydney festival will now face court after being caught possessing or supplying drugs. One man was found to be in possession of more than 100 caps of what was believed to be MDMA.

The news follows an earlier announcement by organisers of the Asia leg of Future Music Festival that Singapore authorities denied them permits to host the festival – just days out from when it was scheduled to take place this year – because of drug-related concerns.

The remaining Australian Future Music Festivals are happening in Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide this weekend.

Gallery: Die Antwoord @ Future Music Festival 2015, Sydney / Photos: Maria Boyadgis