Booze blitz sees 251 arrests in NSW

16:53 Booze blitz sees 251 arrests in NSW 0 Comments

The first night of a trans-Tasman crackdown on alcohol-fuelled crime has seen 251 people arrested in NSW.

An extra 1200 police officers were deployed across the state for the first leg of Operation Unite - the latest hardline blitz on boozy bust-ups and other alcohol-related crime.

The operation is being run over the weekend in Australia and New Zealand.


From the 251 arrests made overnight in NSW there were more than 400 charges laid for offences including robbery, drink-driving, and drug supply and possession.

Two police officers were assaulted while arresting a man and a woman at a licensed premises on the far south coast, with a senior constable suffering a broken nose.

"The purpose of this operation is to ram home the message that police and the wider community have had enough of alcohol-related violence," operation commander Assistant Commissioner Denis Clifford said in a statement on Saturday.

But he warned that police cannot simply arrest their way out of the problem and urged people to drink responsibly.

Operation Unite continues on Saturday.

It has been held three times over the past two years and police expect another will be conducted in December.

During the most recent Operation Unite, held over two days in December 2010, NSW police arrested 723 people and laid more than 1300 charges.

Across Australia and New Zealand, there were about 2617 arrests during the December 2010 operation.