Police may have prevented a shooting in Wangaratta by listening in on the offenders’ conversations before it happened.
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The alleged leader of a drug syndicate, Jasmine Bourne, unknowingly had her phone tapped last year during an investigation into drug deals thought to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Luke Brown, 26, – said to be Bourne's boyfriend – allegedly called her on September 16 requesting ammunition to conduct a “run through” in relation to a domestic dispute.
Cameras set up outside her Wangaratta home showed a car drive up to the house where Michael Manger got out of the passenger seat and briefly went inside.
After a call from investigators, highway patrol officers intercepted the Kia station wagon in Edwards Street 15 minutes later.
They allegedly found 30.8 grams of ice, 6.2g of cannabis, 22 ecstasy pills, $820 cash wrapped in black plastic and four shotgun cartridges - located in the glovebox and footwell where Manger was sitting.
A sawn-off, 12-gauge double-barrelled shotgun was hidden in the spare tyre compartment in the boot.
Police prosecutor Senior Constable Sarah Williamson said the shotgun was identified as one of five firearms stolen from a property near Benalla in August, but shortened to 48 centimetres.
“When police searched the vehicle, this firearm was covered with cloth … upon opening the boot, you wouldn’t know it was there,” she said.
Manger said he had no knowledge of the gun, drugs or cash in the car, but admitted possessing 0.03g of speed in his pocket.
He appeared in Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court charged with offences including conspiracy to traffick methamphetamine.
Solicitor Geoff Clancy said police had a thin case because his client did not contact Bourne about the run through himself, the call from Brown to Bourne would be inadmissible in a trial, and his fingerprints were not on the ammunition.
“He is not heard on any of the (phone) intercepts in that car,” he said.
Police applied to have Manger’s charges uplifted to the County Court, where Bourne and Brown’s will be heard if committed to stand trial.
The application was adjourned until July and Manger’s bail was extended.
