A 32 year old man from Piccadilly was arrested yesterday for serious firearms offences, he made no application for bail and will appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court today.
The arrest was a result of a search following a joint agency investigation between South Australia Police, New South Wales Police and the Australian Federal Police in January 2020. This resulted in large commercial clandestine methamphetamine laboratory located in New South Wales and two people were arrested.
This investigation led to a number of addresses being searched in South Australia, including one at Newton, also in January. At this address police located firearms and methamphetamine in the rear tray of a Holden utility which was parked at the address. At the time a 32 year old from that address was arrested and charged with drug and firearm related offences.
The Holden utility was seized for further examination and as a result of a detailed search, police located two professionally fabricated concealed compartments situated behind the driver and passenger seats of the vehicle.
The compartments were forced open by police and the following items were located within the compartments:
- 1 x Steyr 5.56 fully-automatic military rifle
- 1 x Colt AR15 5.56 semi-automatic rifle and scope
- 1 x Glock 9mm handgun
- 1 x Luger 9mm handgun
- 1 x Ruger 357 magnum revolver
- Magazines to suit the above weapons
- A quantity of .223 calibre ammunition
- A quantity of .45 calibre ammunition.
The recovery of the Steyr is the subject of a current Australian Defence Force investigation. Any further enquiries with respect to this investigation should be directed to the ADF.
Detective Superintendent Stephen Taylor said "the seizures made during these investigations are significant and reveal the breadth of the offending that serious organised crime syndicates are involved in".
"Law enforcement agencies across the country, including the South Australia Police, are sharply focused on disabling and dismantling serious organised crime syndicates who think they can operate their illegal activities with impunity, while putting the lives of the broader community at risk."
"These criminal syndicates need to know that we will be relentless in our investigations of their insidious activities at all levels, and take every opportunity to impact their business."
Members of the Serious and Organised Crime Branch are investigating the involvement of a serious organised criminal syndicate in these incidents. The Branch is also investigating the possible link between this same serious organised crime syndicate and the large commercial scale clandestine methamphetamine laboratory located at Morphett Vale and another laboratory located at a property in Panorama on 18 August 2020.
Police are not excluding further searches or arrests being made.
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