A Tarneit man was one of two people arrested in relation to an arson attack on a Cohuna tobacco store on July 7.
Police executed a search warrant at a residential address in Tarneit on Tuesday, July 16.
A 37-year-old Tarneit man was charged with two counts of criminal damage by fire, two counts of theft of a motor vehicle, theft, theft from a motor vehicle, possessing cannabis, possessing a prohibited weapon and failing to provide a pin.
He was remanded to appear at Mildura Magistrates’ Court on October 9.
During the raid on the man’s Tarneit address, police found a stolen Mazda CX5 with cloned plates which they will allege was used during the arson attack.
A jerry can, a small amount of cannabis, a conducted electricity device and a small amount of cash were also seized.
A second warrant was executed on Friday morning at a residential address in Broadmeadows.
An Isuzu truck, believed to be stolen from a Niddrie address earlier this month, was seized.
A 44-year-old Broadmeadows man was charged with two counts of criminal damage by fire and three counts of theft of motor vehicle.
He was remanded to appear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on July 22.
The charges follow an incident on Sunday, July 7 when a car was driven into a King George Street business in Cohuna about 3am, before it was set alight.
Nobody was inside the premises at the time but the building was completely destroyed and the incident had significant impact on neighbouring businesses not related to the one targeted.
