Northern Territory Police have arrested a 50-year-old woman for assaulting a police officer.
At around 2:45pm yesterday, police attended a remote community airport to conduct random passenger checks and drug screening.
Drug Detector Dog Lena was deployed and located a bag of toys containing 103 grams of cannabis. Further searching located a food packet containing 88 grams of cannabis. Police estimate the cannabis would have sold for approximately $19,000 in the community.
As police went to arrest a 24-year-old man and 23-year-old woman for the cannabis seizures, a large group of people began shouting at police.
Additional police attended, resulting in the arrest of a 19-year-old man on an outstanding warrant for breach of a suspended sentence order. The 19-year-old resisted arrest, causing the crowd to become more aggressive and throw rocks at police.
One of the rocks struck a police officer to the head. A 50-year-old woman was arrested as a result. She was later released and issued with a notice to appear in court for assault a member of the police force. The police officer received minor injuries.
The crowd eventually dispersed without further incident.
The 24-year-old man was arrested and charged for supplying cannabis in a remote community. The 23-year-old female is due to be summonsed for the same offence.
The 19-year-old man was charged with resisting arrest. Additional charges were laid for breach of bail conditions, trespass, and being armed with an offensive weapon for unrelated offending. The man was later bailed by a judge to reside in the community, with travel restrictions.
Acting Superintendent Tanya Woodcock said, “Remote police currently have their hands full with ensuring the health and safety of all residents of our communities, so it is particularly disappointing to have community members attacking police while they are preventing substance abuse and enforcing biosecurity measures.”
