Brooklyn dad Hoa Tran Ly charged with drug-trafficking after police stumble on suburban meth lab
Police thought they were investigating a stolen car when they found a Brooklyn dad passed out in the driver’s seat. Instead investigators stumbled on a suspected clandestine meth operation in the middle “dense” suburbia.
North West
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A dozing dad caught slumped over the steering wheel of a running car has led police to a suspected suburban clandestine meth lab operation.
Hoa Tran Ly, 47, was granted bail in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on May 5 after he was charged with 17 offences, including trafficking a commercial quantity of meth.
Keilor police found Ly passed out in the driver’s seat of a LandCruiser parked at a St Albans home just after 5.30pm on May 3.
Police searched the car and seized almost 50 gram of meth in ziplock bags, more than $1300 cash, two knives, a samurai sword, a laser pointer and four mobile phones.
Investigators arrested Ly then executed a search warrant at his Brooklyn home just after 2am on May 4.
Police seized almost 160gm of a “crystal substance” believed to be meth, a 12-gauge sawn-off shotgun, ammo, more than a kilogram of cannabis, a “tick book” and half a kilogram of tobacco.
Detectives also seized a Malaysian passport in another name, a black knuckleduster/taser and various beakers and glassware containing “unknown” chemicals.
Clandestine lab squad detectives spot tested some of the glassware, which was positive for meth.
Ly faced a brief mention at Sunshine Magistrates just hours later and was represented by high profile lawyer Zarah Garde-Wilson.
Ms Garde-Wilson had her client’s matter moved to Melbourne Magistrates’ for a bail application.
Police opposed bail because Ly’s suspected home drug racket operated within a “dense residential area”.
A police informant told the court there was “clear evidence of the intent to manufacture drugs”.
Ms Garde-Wilson questioned the informant on how much meth police allegedly caught Ly with.
She submitted the prosecution’s case was “weak”.
Ly’s tick book contained financial records which related to debts, and a bakery business, the court heard.
“$10,000 one day, $11,000 the next, pretty lucrative bakery,” Magistrate Donna Bakos said.
“I don’t know too many drug dealers who deal in amounts of 31 cents,” Ms Garde-Wilson said.
Ly had been a business high-flyer who ran several bakeries, a cafe and a catering business.
However, “family man” Ly now has “significant debt” due to his drug and gambling issues, the court heard.
In 2014, Ly gambled away insurance money received after a house he and his wife owned was destroyed by fire, the court heard.
Ly’s “cross” wife has “relegated” her husband to sleep in the shed but she allows him in the house for family dinners, the court was told.
Additionally, Ly has been told he’s “not going to live much longer” if he continues doing meth, the court heard.
Magistrate Bakos said Ly’s alleged crimes were a “serious example of this type of offending”.
“I’m not prepared to say it is a weak case,” Magistrate Bakos said.
Ly was granted bail due to his poor health, the likely delay in finalising his matter and that he had agreed to undertake drug and gambling counselling.
The matter will return for a committal mention on August 3.
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