{"id":17404,"date":"2026-02-13T05:22:57","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/?p=17404"},"modified":"2026-02-13T05:27:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:27:34","slug":"state-10-mil-cannabis-crop-bust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/2026\/02\/13\/state-10-mil-cannabis-crop-bust\/","title":{"rendered":"STATE: $10 mil. cannabis crop bust"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Four men have been charged after police dismantled a sophisticated cannabis crop worth more than $10 million in Victoria\u2019s northwest.<br>Detectives from the Swan Hill Crime Investigation Unit, with assistance from multiple units, executed a search warrant at a rural property in Milnes Bridge, a small town between Cohuna and Kerang, on Tuesday, February 10.<br>Police uncovered 10 large greenhouses with varying quantities of mature plants inside.<br>Five people allegedly attempted to flee from the 324-acre property, with three allegedly jumping into an irrigation channel in an attempt to get away.<br>Police arrested four men, aged 39, 41 and two aged 51, shortly after.<br>The men, who are foreign nationals, have since been charged with cultivating a large commercial quantity of cannabis and trafficking a large commercial quantity of cannabis.<br>They faced Bendigo Magistrates\u2019 Court on Wednesday and were remanded to appear again on May 13.<br>A fifth man remains outstanding at this stage.<br>It took three days for investigators and forensic specialists from the Botany Unit to dismantle the illicit crop houses.<br>Approximately 4700 plants \u2013 weighing more than two and a half tonnes &#8211; were removed from the property.<br>They will be destroyed following forensic examination by a botanist.<br>Police also seized electronic devices, CCTV hardware and items allegedly used to bypass electricity.<br>Other units that assisted include the Western Region Crime Squad, Mildura Divisional Response Unit and local uniform police.<br>The investigation remains ongoing.<br>Detective Acting Inspector Matt Pascoe, Mildura and Swan Hill Investigation and Response Manager:<br>\u201cAnytime we\u2019re able to remove significant quantities of illicit drugs from the streets is a win for community safety.<br>\u201cWe know the cultivation and trafficking of drugs is what fuels organised crime groups.<br>\u201cPolice remain committed to targeting those in the production of illicit drugs and those involved in this activity should know we have you in our sights.<br>\u201cThis investigation remains ongoing and we implore anyone with information to come forward to police.\u201d<br><br><strong>File Image<\/strong>: <strong>Australian Institute of Criminolgy<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four men have been charged after police dismantled a sophisticated cannabis crop worth more than $10 million in Victoria\u2019s northwest.Detectives from the Swan Hill Crime Investigation Unit, with assistance from multiple units, executed a search warrant at a rural property in Milnes Bridge, a small town between Cohuna and Kerang, on Tuesday, February 10.Police uncovered&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_siteseo_robots_primary_cat":"none","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-police-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17404"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17411,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17404\/revisions\/17411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}