Man arrested during bazooka and bombs find fronts court

Alleged crook behind the discovery of a frightening collection of deadly weaponry and meth in St Kilda allegedly contacted co-accused while on remand.

Shaheen Waheed, pictured here with ex-partner Sophia Polites, failed in his bid for bail in the County Court

Police are investigating calls between an alleged crook from custody and a co-accused on bail following their arrest after a series of drug raids that uncovered a rocket launcher and remote-control bombs at a ritzy St Kilda East apartment.

The County Court on Monday poured cold water on Shaheen Waheed’s bid for bail.

This was despite his mother offering a surety for $20,000 and providing her home as the bail address.

His former partner Sophia Polites also took the stand to support his bail bid, saying he needed Mr Waheed’s help to ensure their 12-year-old attended school regularly.

The child had been missing school since his father’s arrest, she said.

Mr Waheed, 45, Polites, 44 — who is no longer facing charges — Lara Domajnko, 36, and Richmond man Marc Andrews, 44, and 66-year-old McKinnon mum Susan Nicola were arrested last July.

Ballistic vests hidden in the wardrobes and drawers, a collection of guns, ammunition, knives and knuckle dusters were among items allegedly recovered from the 10th floor of Maxx Apartments in St Kilda.

A cache of high-grade weapons including a grenade launcher, remote-control bombs, ballistic vests, knuckle dusters and throwing knives were allegedly discovered at a St Kilda Rd apartment in August 2022 during a police drug raid.

Police also allegedly found 2kg of methamphetamine with a street value of $210,000, 1kg of cocaine worth $200,000 and 1kg of heroin estimated at $90,000, as well as almost $58,000 in cash.

During a bail hearing in County Court last Friday, Senior Constable Skye Forster from the organised crime intelligence unit alleged Mr Waheed had been speaking to Ms Domajnko from his custody cell.

He alleged Ms Domajnko had been using fictitious names to speak to Mr Waheed about things, including the latest alleged offending.

Mr Waheed’s lawyer Chris Hooper objected to the admissibility of that information, saying no transcript has been made available.

He asked Mr Forster how he knew the person Mr Waheed spoke to was Ms Domajnko.

Mr Forster alleged she changed from first to third person and that the phone subscriber details linked her to the calls.

A collection of illegal items allegedly recovered from Maxx Apartments.

Mr Waheed was known as “Superfly” in encrypted text messages between him and others connected to the alleged crimes.

Police believe Mr Waheed was the head of the drug syndicate while Mr Andrews allegedly received orders and did the packaging.

As part of his argument for bail, Mr Waheed’s lawyer relied on the delay as a trial was unlikely until 2025 and the strength of the Crown case which he described as “circumstantial”.

Stephen Devilin, appearing for the DPP, said the defence claim that there was no evidence of trafficking was “laughable”.