Children as young as 7 caught up in drug dealing in NSW, police commander says

Melbourne : Children as young as seven have been caught helping to deal drugs, police say, following a series of raids in regional New South Wales last month.
More than 40 people were arrested in Wagga Wagga last month with police laying more than 140 charges of drug dealing.Superintendent Bob Noble said some children were now in the care of the state or relatives as a result of their parents being refused bail.”A lot of these briefs relate to dealing from homes, and in many of those homes there are kids being brought up,” the commander said.Superintendent Noble said primary school aged children — including one aged seven — had been identified, as Strike Force Calyx continues investigations into the local drug trade.”That young person was receiving people coming into the house looking to procure drugs, conveying information to a person in another part of the home and then coming back and basically saying ‘take a seat, someone will be with you shortly’,” he said.”I’m not suggesting, and nor would I like to believe, that this young person has any idea of what they’re involved in, but they’re being brought up clearly in an unsafe environment.”And that’s quite alarming to my police and to all of us, I’m sure.” Superintendent Noble said the seizures were not gigantic, but included ice, amphetamines, cannabis and $45,000 in cash and proceeds of crime, including suspected stolen goods.The police chief said it was another manifestation of the harm that comes with a drug culture.”So there’s harm happening in all those places where there are young people present, whether they’re actually being actively used in the commission of the offence or whether they just happen to be there and seeing this disgraceful behaviour being normalised — dealing of drugs, taking of drugs and the other activity that goes with it.”