Police find brick of meth worth $220k and handgun buried in Malvern East backyard

A brick of methylamphetamine worth $220,000 and a handgun have been found buried in a backyard in Melbourne’s southeast.

Two search warrants were executed at two neighbouring homes on Hughes St in Malvern East last Thursday by Victoria Police and the Australian Federal Police specialist forensic search team.

When this was happening, a man allegedly ran from one of the homes and jumped the fence.

But he landed in the other property police were searching and was arrested.

Police dug up a garden bed at one of the properties and allegedly found a handgun, the methylamphetamine brick worth about $220,000, steroids and ammunition all wrapped in plastic.

When the second home was searching, police seized more vials of steroids and a traffickable quantity of cocaine.

They also seized cannabis, prescription poisons and mobile phones.

Two Malvern East men, aged 25 and 32, including the one who allegedly tried to flee, were arrested at the scene.

The younger man was charged with trafficking methamphetamine, trafficking cocaine, prohibited possession of a firearm and possessing proceeds of crime.

He was remanded to appear in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on October 10.

The older man was charged with possessing steroids and cannabis and bailed to appear in court on October 4.

“From time to time, individuals bury items in an effort to conceal crimes, so for us, a lot of work has gone on behind the scenes into locating them,” Senior Constable Tristan Aboltins said.

“A discovery of this kind shows that we are well-equipped to locate hard-to-find items that people don’t want us to find.

“It’s a great result to get those items off the street and out of the wrong hands to keep our community safer.”