It remains unclear who is behind the cache, although police and underworld sources say it does not belong directly to one of the city’s warring crime gangs.
“When you have people stockpiling weapons for any reason, there can be no good outcomes. Often it’s linked to organised crime groups, so then in turn those weapons are used in other serious and violent offending,” Detective Inspector Julie MacDonald said.
“The criminality of people who are involved in facilitating the movement and storage of firearms should not be underestimated. They are a key factor in allowing violent offending to take place and bring immense harm to the community.”
Victoria Police won’t say how officers eventually confirmed the rumour of the property’s existence, only that in these investigations often “it’s really small details from people who might live near these properties or hear information in passing that makes the biggest difference”.
The discovery is one of four major gun- and organised-crime operations run by police since mid-August that have uncovered more than 90 firearms across the city, a haul that also included a dangerous new breed of 3D-printed fully automatic machinegun-style pistols.
One of these recently uncovered stashes
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