Police have issued more than 50 infringement notices, with 120 drug offences detected and 41 positive random drug tests, during a crackdown on the Dragon Dreaming Festival.
Police said between Thursday 25 September and Tuesday 30 September, officers attached to The Hume Police District with assistance from sniffer dogs as well as Traffic and Highway Patrol Command ran two simultaneous operations at the Dragon Dreaming music festival on Caves Road.
Police stated, “About 8:00pm on Thursday 25 September, officers attempted to pulled over a vehicle for the purpose of a random breath test. Police will allege the car performed a u-turn before police followed the car pulling over the driver. The driver returned a negative breath test, however had reason to search the vehicle. Police seized 226 grams of MDMA – with an estimated street value of $22,000. Police also seized 21 grams of cannabis, LSD, and prescribed medication. The 50-year-old man was arrested and taken to Yass police station. He was charged with supply prohibited drug – commercial quantity, two counts of possess/attempt to, prescribed restricted substance and two counts of possess prohibited drug. He was refused bail and appeared before the Bail Division Court 3 on Friday 26 September, where he was formally refused bail to appear in Goulburn Local Court on Wednesday 19 November 2025.”
Police gave the following statistics for the festival crackdown: At a glance:
4 people charged
57 infringement notices issued
83 person searches conducted
120 drug detections
1100 random breath tests conducted
461 random drug tests conducted
1 positive random drug tests
5 positive random breath test
2006 vehicles were stopped
136 vehicle searches
This isn’t the first time that the Dragon Dreaming Festival has been a target for police, with a 2014 crackdown finding a total of 74 people were found with prohibited drugs such as cannabis, ecstasy, heroin, ice and magic mushrooms. Two people were arrested for drug supply.
Still, the Dragon Dreaming Festival continues to get support from the local community and Council for the traffic and revenue it brings in, arguing that 100 out of thousands is not enough to reflect on the entirety of the crowd.
– Jack Murray
The South West Slopes Times covers an area approximately the size of Fiji in country NSW. We look after a population of more than 50,000 people with our staff servicing 7 major towns and dozens of villages with our story telling footprint.
We offer weekly print editions at $3 a copy and we also offer digital subscriptions across 3 months $30, 6 months $60 and 12 months $120.
We are one of the last truly local independent family run newspaper businesses in the state.
Contact us today to find out how we can promote your business or organisation across our huge network by emailing ads@thetimes.net.au or by calling 0413 763 216.
If you have a news tip, lead or scoop for us please make contact as we love celebrating our communities. You can contribute articles via our South West Slopes Times website.
