Shortcut: Being the head police officer during the Cabramatta heroin crisis

Australian True Crime

Meshel Laurie

True Crime

4.6 • 979 Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2023

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is a "Shortcut" episode. It’s a shortened version of this week’s more detailed full episode, which is also available on our feed.

Alan Leek is a retired member of the New South Wales Police Service, in which he served for 34 years.

In the early 1990s, Alan was rewarded for his excellence in management. When he was made the head police officer in Cabramatta, it was at the time the largest heroin distribution point in the country, a growing political flashpoint and spiraling ever faster, out of control.

The unique set of challenges that beset Cabramatta from the late 1980s created a criminal and cultural misery unlike anything else Australia had seen at the time. And it was up to Alan to rally his troops and to pull the divided and traumatized community together behind them.

Alan is now the author of several books, with his latest being "Rendezvous with Death". All of his titles can be found at Big Sky Publishing.

For Support:

Lifeline on 13 11 14

13 YARN on 13 92 76 (24/7 crisis support phone line for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples)

1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732

CREDITS:

Host: Meshel Laurie. You can find her on Instagram

Guest: Alan Leek. His books can be found at Big Sky Publishing

Executive Producer/Editor: Matthew Tankard

This episode contains extra content from ABC Four Corners and Once Upon a Time in Cabramatta

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Transcript

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0:00.0	We're bringing Australian True Crime live to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne this July,
0:04.3	and I have to tell you that Brisbane sold out already.
0:07.4	Good for you, Brisbane, so we've quickly added a second show.
0:10.3	Now we can't keep adding more shows, so please make sure you get your tickets. Our special guests,
0:15.2	our forensic criminologist Santee Mallet in Brisbane and Sydney and the one and only Charlie Bazzina in
0:19.9	Melbourne. There'll be a Q&A of course so you can ask your own burning questions on the night but you have to book quickly.
0:26.0	This is a true crime podcast as the title suggests.
0:29.0	So please consider this your warning that it's not suitable for children and it probably will
0:33.9	contain content that may be triggering to some people. Also it's an Australian
0:38.4	true crime podcast so Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
0:42.0	listeners should be aware it may contain the voices of deceased people.
0:47.0	The producers of this podcast recognize the traditional owners of the land on which it's recorded.
0:59.6	They pay respect to the Aboriginal elders past, present and those emerging.
1:07.0	Alan Leak is a retired member of the New South Wales Police Service in which he served for 34 years.
1:20.0	Like most members of his generation, Alan didn't complete high school.
1:24.3	But his natural curiosity has led him to a lifetime of study and writing in the field of criminology,
1:30.4	including a stint at the FBI's Academy in Quantico, Virginia.
1:35.0	Allen's won awards for service including the prestigious Peter Mitchell Award for
1:38.7	outstanding performance in a murder investigation and published several books which you can find more information
1:44.8	about in the show notes to this episode.
1:48.2	In the early 1990s, Alan Leake was rewarded for his excellence in management when he was made the head copper in Cabra Matter.
1:55.6	It was at the time the largest heroin distribution point in the country, a growing political
	...

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