Landlords are being urged to keep a close eye on their rental properties after a police raid on a Sanctuary Lakes house uncovered 300 cannabis plants.
Last Wednesday’s haul, the latest in a series of raids, had an estimated street value of $1.1 million.
Wyndham police raided the Brindabella Chase rental property about 6pm.
Detective Sergeant Matt Kershaw said construction workers in the area noticed a constant smell of cannabis so tipped police off about the house. No charges have been laid.
It was the seventh drug bust in Wyndham in recent weeks, with police raiding six houses in Tarneit and Truganina earlier in September. The raids uncovered about 1000 cannabis plants.
Detective Sergeant Kershaw said rental properties in Tarneit and Truganina were increasingly being used by crop managers from St Albans and Sunshine.
“They rent houses on the fringe [of Wyndham] so they don’t have to drive their vans through Werribee when they harvest the plants and risk getting spotted,” he said.
He urged landlords to be more vigilant about who they rented to and to ensure tenants provided as much identification as possible, as many were using fake IDs.
Sweeney Real Estate director Tracey Dean said the agency had taken over the management of houses in the Tarneit area that had been used as grow houses and had seen the work landlords had to do to make the houses safe to lease again.
‘‘It is damaging to the landlord’s investment because the neighbours know what happened and we have to legally disclose [that it was a grow house] if asked,” she said.
» Information to Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000
