Weapons, suspects nabbed as cops bust ‘crime syndicate’
Twenty-one people have been arrested and thirty firearms confiscated in a major police operation on a crime ring in country Victoria involving burglaries from farms and homes.
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Thirty guns and 11 stolen vehicles were among the items seized in a major police operation this week against a crime ring in country Victoria.
Gun-running charges have been laid as a result of four days of raids against suspects operating in the Ballarat and Bacchus Marsh areas.
Among the weapons recovered were guns stolen in burglaries from farms, and a hand grenade.
Operation Incurable was set up to tackle drug trafficking, high-volume crime and aggravated burglaries west of Melbourne.
Officers arrested 21 people in the raids, uncovering the astonishing arsenal of weapons at six houses.
Tracing of the weapons showed some were stolen from farm properties and houses in Ballarat, Mt Clear, Creswick, Geelong, Batesford, Leopold and Tasmania.
Also seized were
SIX Tasers and a homemade version of the weapon;
EIGHT types of drugs including 3300 ecstasy tablets and two litres of GHB;
SEVEN stolen cars and four stolen motorcycles, including a Harley-Davidson;
A $250,000 concrete leveller and industrial machinery;
IMITATION guns and ammunition; and
CHAINSAWS, nail guns, generators and other tradie tools suspected of being part of a stolen goods operation.
Investigators charged a 45-year-old man of Mt Pleasant with possessing a trafficable quantity of firearms and trafficking a commercial quantity of drugs.
Six others were charged with drug trafficking. They were a man, 40, and a woman, 32, of Ballarat; a 38-year-old man of Delacombe; a man, 32, of Alfredton, a 26-year-old Wendouree woman and a man, 49, of Haddon.
Other drugs seized included 1000 Xanax tablets, heroin, MDMA, cannabis, cocaine and LSD.
Multiple charges of firearms offences, car theft, reckless conduct endangering life and handling stolen goods have also been laid.
Inspector Greg Payne said the haul of weapons was the biggest seen in the area.
He said police were committed to disrupting drug trafficking and, in the process, reducing crime rates.
“While we recognise those who use illicit drugs have a health problem, we also know that drugs are a major contributor to crime in Victoria,” Insp Payne said.
“We believe that these arrests will have a major impact on the level of drug trafficking in the Ballarat and Bacchus Marsh areas.”
Officers from divisional response units and sexual offences and child abuse teams, and family violence investigators, were among those to take part in the operation.