Michele Donato accused of hiding boxes of cash containing $5.25m in a secret compartment in a truck

A truckie is accused of transporting more than $5m cash in a hidden compartment while travelling from South Australia to Melbourne.

Boxes of cash containing $5.25 million were found behind a secret compartment in an interstate truckie’s rig in an operation Ironside sting.

Victoria Police Echo task force investigators tracked Michele Donato, 49, for hundreds of kilometres from South Australia to Melbourne on December 29, 2020.

They watched him refuel in Bordertown in South Australia then visit another service station at Rockbank in Melbourne’s outer-west.

The detectives made their move as Donato, contracted as a driver for a food company, drove his 2012 Mitsubishi Canter along Dorcas St in South Melbourne.

They told the father-of-two they were going to search the truck and asked what was inside.

“The accused replied that he had personal stuff in the cabin and pointed to his nose,” a prosecution summary said.

“When asked what he meant, the accused said; ‘coke’.”

Investigators then found three small containers in the cabin holding 4.7g of cocaine with a purity of between 66 and 80 per cent.

But the real mother lode was yet to be uncovered.

The Echo officers then found a false wall at the back of the vehicle which was secured with Phillips head screws.

Behind the false wall were 11 cardboard boxes, 10 of which contained $500,000 and one holding $250,000.

Donato made no comment other than admitting he was the driver when later interviewed by detectives.

An earlier bail hearing was told police alleged Donato was involved in large-scale interstate drug trafficking and was intending to use the cash to buy more drugs.

The court heard there were two mobile phones in the truck, one of which was encrypted.

Ironside was an international police operation in which police infiltrated the AN0M app, a supposedly surveillance-proof platform used worldwide by criminals.

Hundreds of arrests were made six months after the Donato bust when police made their move, detaining and charging outlaw motorcycle gang members and Mafia-linked figures.

Donato, from the Adelaide suburb of Tranmere, has pleaded guilty to cocaine possession and is yet to be sentenced.

The $5 million has been confiscated.