By PAUL MILLAR
A notorious Lebanese crime clan is believed linked to a massive illegal tobacco plantation discovered on the outskirts of Geelong during a series of pre-dawn raids by Victoria Police.
Police today found up to 35,000 tobacco plants during a raid at a Moorabool property on the Geelong-Ballan Rd near Geelong.
The raid was part of a police blitz involving up to 700 law enforcement personnel who executed 44 search warrants in Geelong and across the north-western suburbs of Melbourne.
Customs and taxation officers were part of a team that scoured the Moorabool property, which was sealed off at both entrances by police guards.
The property contains storage sheds and lengthy plastic greenhouses.
Inside those greenhouses, hundreds of metres off the main road, officers were busily loading up a truck brought in to gather evidence.
Police arrested 27 people during the raids, seizing drugs, firearms, ammunition, vehicles and more than $70,000 in cash.
Crime Command Detective Acting Superintendent Michael Frewen said the operation was a result of work done by the Santiago Taskforce in relation to Middle Eastern crime syndicates.
Among those arrested or questioned in the raids were members of a well-known crime family based in Melbourne’s west.
“Santiago Taskforce has been investigating the supply and trafficking of methamphetamine and the storage and trafficking of illegal firearms in relation to this particular Middle Eastern crime syndicate since last year,” he said.
“What we’ve been able to do today, with much success, is disrupt a lot of that activity and prosecute the people involved in those offences.
“With such significant numbers of police and other law enforcement personnel involved, in what was classified as a high-risk operation, it’s been pleasing not to have any injuries to police or offenders processed.”
Today’s operation also drew on specialist support from the National Anti-Gangs Squad and Australian Gangs Intelligence Co-ordination Centre, including resources from Australian Federal Police, Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, the Australian Taxation Office and the Victorian Sheriff’s Office.
The operation involved Santiago Taskforce detectives along with police from Crime Command, regions, Special Operations Group, Dog Squad, Operations Response Unit, Transit, Road Policing, Critical Incident Response Team, Transport Branch, Search and Rescue Intelligence and Covert Support Command and forensics.
Santiago Taskforce was set up by Victoria Police in October 2008 to address serious and organised crime, including shooting incidents involving a number of families and their associates.
