TWO estate agents have been charged over the use of 25 rental properties used to grow hydroponic marijuana crops in the northern suburbs.
The directors of the Barry Plant real estate Epping franchise were charged with aiding and abetting the commercial cultivation and trafficking of illegal drugs.
Inspector Bob Dykstra said police were investigating the death last Thursday of one of the directors, but he said police did not believe there were any suspicious circumstances.
A property manager at the Epping franchise had been interviewed by police and would be charged on summons with drug-related offences, police said.
Several other men had been charged or have charges pending over the alleged drug houses in Epping, South Morang, Wollert, Lalor, Mill Park and Preston, Detective Leading Senior Constable Haydn Beale said.
He said the Whittlesea Crime Investigation Unit swooped on the houses last Tuesday after a tip-off and found 3000 cannabis plants.
An Epping man, 52, who allegedly rented all 25 properties, was charged with 10 counts of cultivating and trafficking a commercial quantity of cannabis, Mr Beale said. Five other men had been charged with separate counts of cultivating and trafficking a commercial quantity of drugs, he said. One of the men was reported to the Immigration Department over alleged visa violations. A 36-year-old Thomastown man had been questioned and released pending inquiries and would be charged on summons, Mr Beale said.
Barry Plant chief executive Mike McCarthy said two employees at the Epping branch had been fired, while the two directors who had been charged had said they were innocent. “It was one rogue employee in one independently owned office,” Mr McCarthy said. “This is isolated to one office.”
He said the directors had stepped aside from their roles pending the investigation. Rental properties had been transferred from the Epping office to the Thomastown office.
