Police sting nets 40kg meth, $1m cash and firearms

Yahoo

16 hours ago

Nearly 40kg of drugs, $1 million in cash and multiple guns have been seized during a crackdown on organised criminals, resulting in the arrest of nine people.
Western Australia Police have aimed at dismantling the drug operations of organised crime in the state over the past two months.
Police conducted a four-day sting across Perth in July into illicit activities in the metropolitan area, uncovering a 34-year-old man as an alleged senior member of a criminal network supplying drugs.
The probe began when the man allegedly told two other men, aged 27 and 30, to sell and supply methylamphetamine at a shopping centre car park in North Beach.
Police uncovered 500g of the drug in a brown paper bag at the car park.
Over the following days, police searched multiple homes and cars to find 17kg of meth and a Ferrari containing a flick knife, capsicum spray and unlawfully owned prescription drugs.
Officers also found more than $530,000 in cash with around $300,000 hidden in a secret storage apartment alongside firearms including a shotgun, pistol and a round of ammunition.
Police have charged six men and one woman in relation to the seizures and alleged crimes.
"This major seizure has enabled us to identify members of a criminal network who were equipped and prepared to receive and distribute a significant number of illicit drugs within the community, and I'm pleased that a large amount of drugs are now off our streets," Commissioner Col Blanch said.
In a separate case, police observed a 20-year-old man departing a Perth city hotel holding a duffel bag before travelling about 60km on June 24 to Stake Hill, where police pounced.
Officers allegedly found 10kg of meth inside the bag and arrested the man.He was charged with possessing a trafficable quantity with the intent to sell or supply it to another.
Detectives also observed a 22-year-old man carrying a backpack leaving a different hotel in Perth's CBD on the same night.
When they stopped him to search the bag, nine kilograms of meth, 1.5kg of cocaine, a gun and more than $330,000 in cash were allegedly found.
He was charged with three counts of possessing a trafficable quantity with the intent to sell or supply it to another and receiving, possessing, concealing, disposing of or dealing with any money that is the proceeds of an offence.
The men are due back before the Perth Magistrates Court over the next week.
Mr Blanch said all of the arrests should serve as a warning to anyone considering selling or supplying drugs.
"We will find you and we will bring you to justice," he said.
Police Minister Reece Whitby also issued the warning to potential criminals to expect to be caught.
"Organised Crime has no place in our state and the WA Police Force won't stop hunting down alleged members of criminal networks to ensure illicit drugs and firearms aren't in the hands of dangerous criminals," he said.