Some drug users claim the supply of illegal drugs has slowed in Canberra following a series of busts by police agencies in Canberra and NSW. NSW Police, ACT Policing, the AFP, the Crime Commission and Customs have been involved in a number of raids that have stopped the circulation of kilos of cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, heroin and ice. Overall, police claim more than $29 million in drugs bound for the streets have been seized in raids across NSW and the ACT in the past three months. The largest haul saw more than $18 million in cannabis seized by NSW Police in raids over a five-month operation.

Strike Force Aster located more than 9600 plants in five regional areas including the Far South Coast.The raids that used dog squads and air searches focused on cannabis growers during their growing season.

Speaking after releasing results of the haul, Detective Superintendent Nicholas Bingham said police targeting of cannabis crops had a significant effect on production. ''We have seen the crop sizes reduce dramatically from thousands some years ago to in the 10s and low 100s,'' he said.

He said in an attempt to slip under the police radar, some drug growers had ''spread [plantations] across numerous crops sites in less accessible terrain, thereby reducing cannabis available for sale''.In a separate raid on February 20, NSW Police in conjunction with customs and the Australian Crime Commission arrested a 25-year-old man in relation to drug charges. Police claim he tried to import 2kg of heroin through the post. The drugs would have a street value of more than $2 million.

Another joint operation saw an estimated $4.5 million in heroin seized in January. And on February 26, NSW Police claim to have seized about $2 million worth of cocaine and $1.3 million in cash following a raid on a Darling Point apartment. Locally, a series of smaller busts have seen heroin, cannabis and methamphetamine seized in Flynn, Charnwood, Reid and in a raid on Thursday in Chisholm.