chilli Posted October 16, 2007 (edited) I don't know where it's best to put this, so I put it here in the hope more people will see it. In NZ there is a site called Trademe that is like a national version of Ebay. There is a big trade on there for Trichocereus cacti, and occasionally people say stupid incriminating stuff. Anyway, a mate of SWIM's had the cops rock up at his door asking why he was so interested in San Pedro cacti on Trademe, apparently he let them in and showed them his collection. Then a couple of days ago a totally unrelated friend told SWIM that the same thing happened to someone he knew, and SWIM doubts it is the same person, although it could be. Anyway, it shits him that Trademe are apparently watching auctions and giving info to the cops, does anyone with experience with how they work know if this might be the lead up to a series of raids or something? It doesn't help that the fuckers have just raided a bunch of Maori and environmental groups today, and some of the reports mention Trademe: Military-style equipment, body armour and terrorist training manuals were among items police searched for during raids carried out under the Firearms Act and the Terrorism Suppression Act yesterday.A copy of the search warrant, executed around the North Island and obtained by TV3, showed police were looking for more than 100 items that had been auctioned on Trade Me in the past five years. They included a 22-calibre silencer, "camo" face paint, anti-fog goggles and ammunition. Army-issue knives, a .303 rifle and an AK47 30-round magazine vest were also listed in the warrant dated October 10, 2007. Most items were auctioned from 2005 but two items - books called Incidents of the Maori War in New Zealand and New Zealand at War WW2 - were auctioned in 2002. Computer hardware, software, hard drives, floppy disks and tapes were also included in the warrant. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4238821a25364.html Edited October 17, 2007 by IllegalBrain Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The Dude Posted October 16, 2007 (edited) [edit] accidental post, nevermind. ps. that's bullshit about being harrassed for buying cacti! WTF man? like they need to spend police resources on such a niche market of very nasty and terrible and dependence causing drugs. <-- sarcastometer woulda blown there. Edited October 16, 2007 by El Duderino Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
apothecary Posted October 16, 2007 Was there ever an internet auction site that didn't turn over records on request to the police? I doubt trademe is watching auctions. The cops in some or other taskforce probably found out about cacti being sold after arresting some guy, and asked the company/ies for the details of everyone matching so and so type auctions. Try and verify that these visits by the police actually took place before freaking out too much. If they did occur, and you are worried about a visit, then probably best to remove anything that would remove your chance at a 'reasonable doubt' defence in court along the lines of just being a hobby cactus collector i.e. big vats of acetone, sepfuls, etc Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vertmorpheus Posted October 16, 2007 Going to get that in a country with only 4 million ppl in it..small world to start with, hanging out in quiet corners of it doesn't make it any bigger Maybe just list em as "unidentified cactus", sure if someone wants the good one they will look at the details for themselves... only need to go bragging about specifics if youre trying to talk up the sale price to Joe Blow at the other end. failing that I'm sure ppl would work out that hey this fella wants a whole lot of cash for a foot of that "some kind of cereus or related species". Any net company approached by police spills its guts, more or less. Any of the big legit ones anyway... bound to happen. Who wants em thinking they're hiding something, harbouring whoever, or whtever? Scarier still...wait til the tax office starts talking to ebay n paypal, muwhawha... Remember too that they don't need to scout around the net once they have a couple of squealers to squeeze for the names of the rest of the flying circus.I guess therein lays the benefit of having a hundred dif kinds of cac n succ rather than a hundred pedro clones on their lonesome, next to a well thumbed copy of Trouts. Always cracks me up (and makes me shake my head) though, some of the things ppl actually say online... I laugh even harder when they come back to nibble on their numbskulls. Do we actually think police can't type "pedro" into an SE, buy a couple, complain about one or otherwise put you in a position of having to send em an addy (hey mate dont have paypal, how bout a money order ? etc) then turn up a week later with the Big Book Of Magic Plants and a bag of hippy nails? Time to move IB... but not back here, it's no different Bound to happen, if us hairy types could keep our faces shut and just share with close associates, it might be different... but we gotta rant, vent and brag,try to make some easy cash... short term benefit, long term loss. Might help too if ppl , in the midst of their bragging, refrained from comments like 'the best drug experience ever" and "total loss of reality' etc...it shouldnt matter, but it does, and thats why sally went the way she did..ppl couldnt just promote it as a pleasantly laid back herbal thing, a meditation aid, etc... they had to go ranting about "the most powerful hallucinagen known to science!so easy to grow, undetectable by sniffer dogs, your mum doesnt know what it is"..then started selling dodgy products at massively inflated and generally untaxed prices... and then wonder why it ENDED UP ILLEGAL. Maybe time we all took turns on the bilge pumps, this ship is sinkin faster day by day... VM Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Auntyjack Posted October 16, 2007 NArhh...you're just really paranoid! ets jist they way thungs is IB! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chilli Posted October 16, 2007 (edited) Thanks everyone for the sane replies, SWIM's innate paranoia is receding a bit. But I just realized from some of VM's comments that it might have sounded like SWIM was the one making the unscrupulous comments, but no, it was a couple of total dicks that SWIM tried to tell to shut the fuck up, and Salvia in Australia was actually an exact case I mentioned... Trademe have even stopped Salvia trade now, even though it's legal here. Hey Apoth, thanks for the advice, but any idea what extent of stuff constitutes incriminating evidence? Does having links to SAB or Erowid constitute criminal activity? Don't get me wrong, SWIM has got no real reason to be paranoid, but isn't that what paranoia is? It's just that SWIM values privacy and is a total libertarian and hates shit like this. Edited October 17, 2007 by IllegalBrain Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chilli Posted October 16, 2007 [edit] accidental post, nevermind.ps. that's bullshit about being harrassed for buying cacti! WTF man? like they need to spend police resources on such a niche market of very nasty and terrible and dependence causing drugs. <-- sarcastometer woulda blown there. Yeah, exactly what I said, haven't the fuckers got better things to do like rape young girls? (see recent NZ news stories) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Auxin Posted October 16, 2007 The nook and the hive would look bad, having a copy of the rhodium archive or drug manufacture books/ebooks would look Real bad.. cops may piss and moan about SAB but that couldnt hold up in court since we so frequently talk about medicines, biochemistry, etc. However if your concerned you can get truecrypt (free), make a heavily encrypted container file, mount it as a drive, store all your ethnobotany ebooks on it, set your browser to use that drive for temporary internet files, personal preferences settings, favorites, etc. Simply turning off the comp would dismount the drive so it was inaccessible without the password. Just dont name the container file Haha_coppers_this_has_drug_books.bitch Get stuff like CCleaner (free) to do scheduled security wipes of your tracks.. I havent upgraded lately, it might have its own scheduler now, if not make a .bat file that says: @ECHO OFFC:\Progra~1\CCleaner\ccleaner.exe /AUTOECHO ON put it in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and it'll run on startup, use windows task scheduler to make it run at defined intervals as well, its very configurable and has many cool track cleaning options. Lots of free security progs at Snapfiles Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
