He could not recall anything near what would be called large-scale ice production in the region.

"Manufacturing ice is not an easy process," he said, adding that the production of amphetamines had the potential to literally "blow up" in one's face.

"It's an amphetamine so there has to be a chemical process and its manufacture is inherently dangerous," he said.

"If you compare it with cannabis, it's probably more portable. You can pack up a laboratory and move it, whereas you can't pack up a cannabis crop and move it along.

"Ice is dispensed in quite small quantities compared with cannabis, for instance, and in that sense it might be harder for police to detect.

"But it's certainly not an easy process to manufacture ice and there's an awful lot that can go wrong that can be enormously dangerous.

"In fact, specialists from Sydney are called in to deal with laboratories (in regional areas). If there's no urgency to be on the premises, no life and death situation, local police withdraw and call in the specialists from Sydney for a complete assessment and to dismantle the laboratory in a safe manner."

That said, there was evidence to suggest the local use and supply of ice, in preference to other drugs, was on the rise.

"In 2014, ice accounted for 23 per cent (nearly one-in-four) of our drug detections in Orana - that's quite higher than it has been, historically," Superintendent Simmons said.

"Where legal actions relating to drugs were concerned, as opposed to incidents, 25 per cent of those were ice-related.

"When it comes to charges laid in relation to supply, 59 per cent (nearly three in five) have been in relation to ice.

"Part of that is due to the fact it has been targeted. If we see something as more of a significant problem than something else we'll target the more significant problem as best we can."

Indeed, there was no shortage of "entrepreneurs" who were willing to travel from Dubbo and surrounds to other centres to collect larger quantities of the drug then break it up into smaller parcels and sell it locally, Superintendent Simmons said.

While outlaw motorcycle gangs had "no doubt in regional NSW historically been involved in drug distribution", he said, it would be quite wrong to think they were the sole source of ice supply.

"It's not only them. There are those people who would otherwise live normal lives but have just got off track somewhere along the line," he said.

"For instance, they might think they don't have the ability to be employed so once they have the connections to access a supply from Sydney, interstate or wherever they get it, it just becomes a matter of going to get it.

"They do need a stake to start off with, they've got to buy the ice upfront before they can bring it back and sell it, and that money generally comes from crime.

"Once the cycle starts, it continues because they're selling to get more money to buy the next lot. When they get the next lot, they've got to sell it to recoup the money and on it goes.

"A fair proportion of the dealers will actually go down (to metropolitan areas) and buy the greater quantity themselves or have somebody they pay to do that on their behalf. It's not specifically an organisation, as such.

"It's surprising what people will do for money."

Search warrants were one strategy local police employed to catch ice users and suppliers, Superintendent Simmons said, with drug detection dogs playing an important role in the strategy.

"In 2014, there were 12 drug-related search warrants executed in Orana where ice was listed as one of the items we were looking for, and of those seven resulted in ice seizures," he said.

"The other warrants resulted in the seizures of property and other drugs.

"Most of them were in Dubbo, but there were three executed in Gilgandra where two yielded ice and three in Wellington where two yielded ice."

To some, seven instances where ice was seized during a police raid might not sound like many, but that was nevertheless ice that was prevented from going out onto the streets, Superintendent Simmons said.

"And that's only the amount we found from search warrants, it doesn't include other seizures from instances where we haven't needed a warrant, such as when we find it on a person.

"Across the state there's been some quite large seizures through random breath testing and other traffic stops, licence checks or whatever, as a lot of ice is carried by road.

"There are indications there are a few, not a great deal, but a few in the transport industry that assist in its transport across NSW.

"There have been others who use public transport and train networks to move it. That's a little more problematic for them because those things have timetables, and if police get information ahead then there are limited places for those people to go if police are waiting for them at the train stop at the other end."