Michele Donato: Man charged after seizure of $5m cash

At least $5 million in cash along with a quantity of cocaine was allegedly seized from one location in central Melbourne in Tuesday night.

A truck driver from Adelaide found in Melbourne with $5 million in unexplained cash who police allege is “involved in large-scale interstate drug trafficking” has been granted bail.

The money was seized by police in a sting in Southbank, central Melbourne, on Tuesday night from behind a false rear wall in a Mitsubishi truck with South Australian license plates.

The driver, Tranmere resident Michele Donato, was released to return to Adelaide by the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday afternoon, with conditions that he must regularly report to the local police station, not leave the country, and return to Melbourne to attend court dates.

Victoria Police’s anti-bikie Echo Taskforce seized the cash along with about seven grams of cocaine from the truck after it was intercepted about 9.30pm in Dorcas Street.

Detective Senior Constable Lewis Vincent alleged the cash was hidden behind a false wall at the rear of the truck.

“This wall was removed by police, revealing 11 large boxes containing a large quantity of Australian currency totalling approximately $5 million,” he said.

He said Mr Donato had two mobile phones, one of which seemed to be cypher encrypted, for which he refused to hand over the pin.

The 47-year-old is charged with knowingly possess proceeds of crime with intent to conceal the proceeds of crime, traffic cocaine and possess cocaine.

His lawyer Nelson Brown argued the prosecution case was “extremely weak” and that there was nothing tying his client to the money besides the fact he was driving the truck.

“He’s driving another person’s truck — a company’s truck,” he said.

But magistrate Steven Raleigh pushed back on this argument.

“He’s driving the truck. The truck is examined and it contains approximately $5 million in currency and you consider it’s a weak case. What do you consider a strong case?” he said.

“If he’s convicted of these offences he’s going to be spending a lot of time in custody.”

But he granted bail after Mr Brown said his client had rheumatoid arthritis and had booked into see a specialist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital next week, and that delays in the court system meant the matter would not reach trial until at “best case” the end of 2022.

Mr Donato’s wife appeared over videolink from Adelaide, and offered to front up $20,000 as surety if her husband was granted bail.

The magistrate said he was “going to need a little bit more than that — I was thinking 50” which she agreed to put up.

Detective Senior Constable Lewis had told the court he was concerned that Victoria Police could not monitor Mr Donato from Adelaide, and that there was a possibility he would not be able to return to Melbourne to attend court because of border closures if there were COVID outbreaks.

Mr Donato is next due in court on March 24.