Revealed: The movements of drug dealers and traffickers in the Goulburn Valley
The Goulburn Valley is known for many things, but it has a more sinister side – the illegal drug trade. Find out where the drug dealers are in your neighbourhood.
Goulburn Valley
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Every year, the Goulburn Valley’s drug trade continues to resurface even as police arrest the heavy hitters involved in the game.
The Goulburn Valley is a sprawling area that refers to parts of the Hume region of Victoria, with major regional centres Shepparton, Seymour, Echuca, Benalla, Yarrawonga and Kyabram.
According to the latest data from Crime Statistics Victoria, drug trafficking offences in Shepparton reached a 10 year high — a stark contrast from the lows recorded in 2014, 2017 and 2021.
Greater Shepparton by far had the most drug traffickers in the Goulburn Valley, with the city recording 78 offences in the year ending December 2023.
Seymour, in the Mitchell Shire, had just 20 per cent of Shepparton’s number, despite sitting second on the Goulburn Valley list for recorded offences.
In the Campaspe Shire, Echuca recorded 11 offences, with Echuca Village logging another two. It was a major increase from 2022’s three offences, but still lower than the 10-year high in 2016.
Yarrawonga had five recorded offences in 2023, the most in the Moira Shire, while there was just one trafficking offence recorded in the Strathbogie council area — in Graytown.
The popularity of drugs trafficked in the Goulburn Valley has also changed and evolved over the past decade.
Methylamphetamine has been the most common drug trafficked for the entire decade, with GHB emerging in the past few years.
Cannabis cultivation and trafficking has fluctuated throughout the decade, but sits second behind meth at the end of 2023.
In October 2023, police arrested 15 people across Shepparton and Melbourne, accused of trafficking more than $100,000 in meth.
11 of the 15 were Goulburn Valley locals.
Raids in January 2024 saw two Shepparton men arrested and charged, accused of trafficking large amounts of GHB and meth following extensive property searches.
The two men are due back in court in May.
In 2022, Ryan Hodgson, a patched member of the Outlaws bikie gang, was sentenced to a community corrections order over his involvement in a meth trafficking syndicate.
In 2021, a Cobram car wash owner was accused of being a bikie enforcer and a high-level drug dealer.
His sister and father were also allegedly involved.
In the same year, a Shepparton drug dealer and Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang associate Lausei Asiata sold $50,000 worth of cocaine to an undercover cop.
Former Shepparton teen BMX star Tyson May was also exposed as a prolific, gun-toting drug trafficker in 2021.
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