The big raid

By Bridget Cook
Police also raided 14 properties in Greater Dandenong on Tuesday – a day police labelled “the single biggest day of raids in Victoria Police history”.
The raids continued yesterday with the Springvale South home and two homes, both in Warana Drive, Hallam also raided, uncovering large amounts of cannabis.
On Tuesday there were three raids on properties in Dandenong North, five in Springvale, two in Springvale South, three in Noble Park and one in Noble Park North.
The properties were among 68 raided by police across the state on Tuesday as part of Operation Entity – to smash alleged drug syndicates involved in the cultivation of cannabis.
Of those properties, one was in Ural Court, Dandenong North and another on Heatherton Road, Springvale South, as well as homes in nearby suburbs including Narre Warren South and Hampton Park.
Yesterday when Star went to print, police had arrested 43 people and seized 8040 cannabis plants.
Of those arrested, 30 were charged and remanded in custody and were due to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court yesterday afternoon, with many of being from the Greater Dandenong area.
Charges included a range of drug-related offences including cultivating and trafficking a commercial quantity of cannabis.
Nine people were charged and bailed, two were cautioned and two were released pending further inquiries.
At the raids on the two homes in Hallam yesterday, a neighbour in Warana Drive said he was ashamed to hear there were drugs in the same street as him.
“The only good thing is that the homes are not next to or back on to a school, but it is very close which is sad,” he said.
Another neighbour said she wasn’t surprised because the house was always locked up.
“The blinds or doors was never opened,” she said.
“I thought it was weird when steel gates went up.”
More than 630 police took part in Operation Entity who executed warrants from 7am on Tuesday across Victoria.
As a result, police located and seized cannabis with a street value of several million dollars.
Several million dollars worth of residential and commercial real estate is in the process of being restrained, the largest property seizure in Victoria ever undertaken.
Today’s seizures are associated with a two-year investigation into suspected crime syndicates involved in the cultivation and distribution of cannabis.
It is believed that those syndicates are responsible for the production of almost $400 million worth of cannabis in the past two years.