It was a leafy suburban street lined with jacaranda trees in Sydney's south-west where one of three secret drug laboratories was discovered and shut down by strike force investigators on Thursday afternoon.
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Strike force detectives, Fire & Rescue NSW and specialist police stormed the white weatherboard home in Mt Pritchard to discover a clandestine laboratory stocked with drug paraphernalia.
It was one of seven properties targeted in raids in which $57,000 in cash, and quantities of ice, heroin and ammunition were seized.
The raids were the culmination of an investigation into the supply and manufacture of prohibited drugs and firearm supply, and resulted in the dismantling of an alleged organised criminal syndicate and the arrest of four people.
The investigation dates back to June 2017, when the State Crime Command Drug Squad's Chemical Operation Unit established Strike Force Cower, a probe into the manufacture and supply of methylamphetamine in Sydney's south-west.
At the time detectives seized three firearms, including a sawn-off 12-gauge shotgun, ammunition, 42 grams of heroin, 252 grams of ice, 28 grams of cocaine, and 27 grams of MDMA.
Five months on, detectives arrested a 37-year-old man at a Liverpool car park on Thursday afternoon.
Scenes of the arrest reveal thick wads of $50 and $100 notes concealed inside a brown paper McDonald's takeaway bag and the carry case of a handyman's drill.
He was charged with a number of offences, including 15 counts of drug supply, possessing drug manufacture apparatus to make a prohibited drug and unlawfully selling firearms three times or more within 12 months.
He was refused bail and will appear at Liverpool Local Court on Friday.
A short time later search warrants were executed at properties in Bankstown, Bonnyrigg, Cabramatta, Canley Heights, Green Valley, Mt Pritchard, and Parramatta, with $US3800, ice, ephedrine, amphetamine, glassware, 27 cannabis plants, LSD, heroin, ammunition and mobile phones were seized in raids.
Strike force investigators executed the seven search warrants and arrested another two men and one woman, with the assistance by the Public Order and Riot Squad and North West and South West Metropolitan Region Enforcement Squads.
A 29-year-old Mount Pritchard man was charged with offences including manufacturing a prohibited drug, drug supply, supplying a firearm to person unauthorised to possess it and participating in a criminal group contributing to criminal activity.
A 31-year-old Bankstown woman was charged with manufacturing and supplying a prohibited drug, dealing with property proceeds of crime, and participating criminal group contributing to criminal activity.
Both were refused bail to appear at Bankstown Local Court on Friday.
The third man, a 23-year-old from Cabramatta, was charged with two counts of possessing or using a prohibited weapon without permit, taking part in the manufacture of prohibited drug, possessing a prohibited drug, and participating in a criminal group contributing to criminal activity.
He was granted strict conditional bail to appear at Liverpool Local Court on December 11.
