Seems a bit steep doesn’t it?

It turns out Melbourne Police visited Brunswick venue Railway Hotel a total of 13 times to purchase drugs before finally raiding the joint for drug trafficking.

(13 times! As though it wasn’t quite clear enough what was going on during the first 12 visits.)

During the hearing at Melbourne’s Magistrates Court, Police claim that the Railway Hotel management were selling so many drugs that there were people actually lining up to buy cocaine and ice, Herald Sun reports.

It has also been reported that Hotel manager Chris Lytras, 47, and Paul Polito, 37, have been charged with trafficking offences, after running their operation from the venue’s upstairs office.

From their office! That’s game.

However, the most interesting fact from the court case is the sheer amount of drugs undercover Police purchased before they thought, “ok, theres some drugs getting sold here.”

Over the course of three months, Police purchased more than $67,000 worth of cocaine and ice from the venue. Magistrate Peter Reardon was reportedly quite “confused” as to why Police needed to visit the venue 13 times to buy drugs before giving the all clear for a raid.

Quite trivial that, isn’t it?

Regardless, Polito – who was accused of “acting as a concierge” for taking punters to and from the office for their fix – has been bailed out for a staggering $150,000. However, Lytras and another co-accused man will remain behind bars.

But wait, there is more! Melbourne DJ, Jason Kolbeck (co-owner of Two Floors Up nightclub) was also raided as part of an unconnected operation in March, and has been denied bail. It was reported that Police found several THOUSAND ecstasy pills as well as methamphetamine during their raid.

It is believed that Kolbeck had a stake in the venue and is charged with trafficking drugs.

With all of that said, both venues, the Railway Hotel an Two Floors Up, will continue to operate as usual (perhaps not to the FULL extent as they used to, if you know what I mean), with Two Floors Up recently taking to Facebook to state the venue “is running as per normal and will continue to trade as expected every week”.

There you go!

 

[Source: Tonedeaf]