Alleged Breaking Bad-style drug lab busted in Yan Yean
A Greensborough man accused of being a key player in a Breaking-Bad style meth syndicate was among 14 people arrested as police busted an alleged drug lab in Melbourne’s northeast.
Police & Courts
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A drug cook accused of being a key man in a Breaking Bad-style meth syndicate was among 14 people arrested in a sprawling police operation.
Others entangled in the clandestine laboratory squad probe allegedly supplied chemicals for a large-scale manufacturing set-up operating out of Yan Yean, northeast of Melbourne.
Police will allege the 50-year-old from Greensborough was cooking for a gang which used international connections to import large amounts of pseudoephedrine, a vital component in methylamphetamine production.
A cash-counting machine suspected of being used to tally-up profits was seized during the operation.
The Greensborough man has been charged with possession of hypophosphorous acid and iodine, also used in methylamphetamine production, and will appear in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on May 27.
He faces counts of trafficking and possession of commercial amounts of methylamphetamine.
Police carried out 19 search warrants and detained 14 people as they made their move this week after a six-month investigation.
The raids, some utilising the special operations group, were carried out at homes in Yan Yean, Melbourne, North Melbourne, Greenvale, Hallam. Bonbeach, Greensborough, Box Hill North and on storage units in Sunshine North.
Warrants were also done on six vehicles in a sweep involving members of the VIPER taskforce, the major drug squad and the Box Hill divisional response unit.
What police described as a “large, active clandestine laboratory” was uncovered on an expansive rural property at Yan Yean.
A commercial quantity of methylamphetamine was seized in Melbourne, along with a .45 calibre handgun and ammunition.
Commercial levels of meth, a heroin press, cash and a large cash-counting machine were found at a Greenvale address.
A trafficable quantity of the industrial solvent 1,4-Butanediol, sold as the drug GHB, meth, cocaine, MDMA and prescription drugs were seized at Bonbeach.
A 52-year-old Yan Yean man has been charged with possessing equipment for the manufacture/trafficking of a drug of dependence, methylamphetamine possession and other offences.
Others charged as part of the operation were a 38-year-old St Albans man, a 34-year-old Melbourne man, a 34-year-old Greenvale man, a 41-year-old Hallam man, a 45-year-old Box Hill man, a 33-year-old North Melbourne man, a 35-year-old St Albans man, a 51-year-old Bonbeach woman and a 30-year-old Greenvale woman.
Three other people were interviewed and released without charge.
Detective Inspector Anthony Vella of the clandestine laboratory squad said the investigation attacked an illicit drug chain on multiple levels.
“As well as arresting those persons directly involved in the manufacture of methylamphetamine, we have systematically targeted those that supplied the clandestine laboratory with precursor chemicals and those involved in the large-scale distribution of the methylamphetamine laboratory’s output,” Insp Vella said.
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