PHOTO: Melbourne real estate agent Joe Tumino
A suburban real estate agent has been arrested by federal investigators over his alleged role scouting grow houses for Albanian organised crime figures.
Melbourne real estate agent Joe Tumino is accused of using his insider knowledge to scout at least four rental properties for the syndicate in Melbourne’s south-east.
Man arrested under an AFP-led investigation into an Albanian organised crime syndicate allegedly operating multiple cannabis grow houses in Melbourne rental properties
Man arrested under an AFP-led investigation into an Albanian organised crime syndicate allegedly operating multiple cannabis grow houses in Melbourne rental properties
The 59-year-old allegedly targeted homes owned by overseas investors, who were unlikely to carry out inspections in person, and rented them out to members of the organised crime network, who transformed them into cannabis grow houses.
Footage obtained by investigators at one of the homes in Keysborough shows potted cannabis plants sitting on milk crates in a dimly lit room. The floors and walls are covered in white plastic sheets with lights installed on the ceiling.
Thick foliage covers most of the room, and a makeshift irrigation system made up of a barrel and some rubber tubes sit in one corner. Large canisters of chemicals are stacked on a shelf, and the carpet and walls are stained by soil and watermarks.
Australian Federal Police believe Tumino was working for 36-year-old Avdi Molla, an Aspendale Gardens builder believed to be the leader of the syndicate.
Investigators allege Molla, who was born in Albania, is linked to known international organised crime figures in his native country and was co-ordinating the grow operation in suburban Melbourne.
AFP officers raided Molla’s home last June and found an An0m-enabled device, $270,000 in cash and five designer watches hidden in a roof cavity. An0m was an encrypted message app developed and used by the AFP and FBI for a global crime sting.
Officers also uncovered more than 80 cannabis plants, weighing a combined 96 kilograms, across two Keysborough homes linked to the syndicate. They arrested two men in connection with the operation.
Two more grow houses were later uncovered in Burwood East and Keysborough, where they found more than 20 plants and 11 seedlings.
Molla and two other associates, 46-year-old Emiliano Paron and a 23-year-old woman from Dandenong, were arrested more than a year later, in August 2022.
Molla was charged with directing the activities of a criminal organisation, cultivating controlled plants for a commercial purpose, and cultivating a marketable quantity of cannabis. Paron and the woman were charged with cultivating controlled plants.
They were released on bail in August and will appear before the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in November.
The arrests were part of Operation Ironside, a three-year joint investigation between the AFP and the FBI that has led to the arrest of dozens of alleged bikie and mafia figures.
The probe, which has been described by law enforcement as the “sting of the century”, used An0m to covertly monitor communications about the global drug trade and other illegal activities.
AFP Sergeant Glenn Tankard said the syndicate’s entire operation, including the network of illicit cannabis grow houses in Melbourne, had been entirely dismantled by the raids.
“We allege the persons arrested are significant syndicate members with ties to Albanian organised crime, who undertook enormous planning to executive their criminal operations to grow and cultivate cannabis with the help of professional facilitators,” Tankard said.
Tumino will appear before the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday, charged with one count of supporting a criminal organisation.
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