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It remains unclear who is behind the cache, although police and underworld sources say it does not belong directly to one of the city’s warring crime gangs.
“When you have people stockpiling weapons for any reason, there can be no good outcomes. Often it’s linked to organised crime groups, so then in turn those weapons are used in other serious and violent offending,” Detective Inspector Julie MacDonald said.
“The criminality of people who are involved in facilitating the movement and storage of firearms should not be underestimated. They are a key factor in allowing violent offending to take place and bring immense harm to the community.”
Victoria Police won’t say how they eventually confirmed the rumour of the property’s existence, only that in these investigations often “it’s really small details from people who might live near these properties or hear information in passing that makes the biggest difference”.
The discovery is one of four major gun- and organised-crime operations run by police since mid-August that have uncovered more than 90 firearms across the city, a haul that also included a dangerous new breed of 3D printed fully automatic machine gun-style pistols.
One of these recently uncovered stashes is allegedly linked to the city’s most powerful crime syndicate, run by Kazem “Kaz” Hamad, whose street crews have unleashed a wave of firebombings and shootings over the past three years.
It included a stockpile of explosives, some of which police suspect were stolen from a chemical factory in Melbourne’s outer west. Investigations are ongoing.
Another series of operations recovered 57 firearms and four high-tech 3D printers from properties linked to the Bandidos outlaw motorcycle gang.
Police and underworld sources, who cannot be publicly identified, say these stash houses are both a lucrative business and a way to avoid highly effective crackdowns using sweeping anti-firearm search powers that were introduced in 2018.
Known as Firearm Prohibition Orders (FPOs), they allow police to search nominated offenders, and any person in their vicinity, for firearms without a warrant at any time. More than 2200 people are currently subject to them.
This has meant criminals have had to get smarter about how they get and keep firearms, including using people with clean records to transport and store guns until they are needed for violent crimes.
The photo of the handgun allegedly transported by a mule to a stash house linked to underworld boss Kazem Hamad in 2024.
An insight into how these operations work was aired in criminal proceedings involving another stash house allegedly linked to the Hamad syndicate that was raided in June 2024.
A police summary tendered to the Magistrates’ Court claims that the alleged boss of a drug trafficking syndicate sent a mule carrying two high-powered handguns to meet the stash house minder outside Melbourne.
Messages sent via encrypted apps on phones seized by police show the courier, who was paid $300 for the delivery, confirmed with the boss that a gun had been picked up by sending a photo.
“Open it up and there should be a chrome gun take a pick [sic] of it,” the alleged boss messaged the courier.
Messages later set up a meeting where the weapon would be dropped off at a pre-arranged time and location.
“I can see her at 3 or 345,” the alleged stash house operator messaged.
“She’s there now bro,” the alleged drug dealer warned as the courier arrived.
The Lunar Taskforce and VIPER squad allegedly traced the deal to the registered address of a demolition company at a sprawling rural property.
Police allege the stash house operator is “closely associated” with the Hamad syndicate.
The false wall concealing 10 firearms that police allegedly found at the stash house linked to Kazem Hamad.
Police later recovered 15 illicit firearms at the property, most of which were concealed behind a false wall in a shed. It included the chrome handgun. Also found was a shipping container holding 2.4 million cigarettes.
“The Hamad syndicate are responsible for a significant number of serious offences including arsons, extortions [and] shootings linked to the illicit tobacco trade as well as the importation and distribution of illicit tobacco,” the police summary said.
All of those charged are contesting the allegations.
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Locations of stash houses are closely guarded secrets and the business of buying and selling the weapons is done by delivery or meet-ups at other locations.
Other criminals have been found with their weapons closer to home, but still technically out of their hands, by renting a property next door in a different name.
But an increasing number of crime groups are creating their own weapons from scratch. Several of the gun raids turned up “sophisticated” homemade weapons and 3D printers.
At The Armoury, police found a 3D printed FGC-9 fully automatic pistol, which can be manufactured for only a few hundred dollars in materials with the right equipment and freely available blueprints.
The underworld has begun to adopt 3D-printed guns as they have become more sophisticated, durable and easy to manufacture, they also cost less than traditional black market firearms.
“Handgun prices are $30,000 right now. They used to be $15,000,” an underworld source said.
Stephen Bendle, from the Australian Gun Safety Alliance, said 3D-printed weapons were the biggest firearm risk facing Australia.
“Right now, someone could have a whole range of legal things. They could have polymer, they could have a printer, they could have a computer, they could have a metal pipe. And everything is legal until they press the button and print the chassis for the firearm and put it together,” Bendle said.
“I’ve seen videos of semi-automatic firearms that are 3D-printed that can fire up to 100 rounds and then be thrown in the fire. Every state and jurisdiction is facing this issue.”
Bendle said the alliance was pushing for the Victorian government to ban the possession and distribution of blueprints.
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