Five-bedroom home where drugs, guns and cash were found in a secret room hidden behind a bookcase hits the market for $2.7m after the whole property was seized by police
- The multi-million dollar two-storey property is in Sylvania in Sydney’s south
- House has been forfeited to police after being linked to illicit drug operation
- Officers investigating Colombian drug gang found secret room behind bookcase
An impressive five-bedroom house has hit the market for $2.76million but the owner won’t get a cent after the property was seized by police.
The two-storey home at Sylvania in Sydney‘s south had been owned by jailed drug trafficker Alexander Luis Leon and his father.
Leon, 48, is currently serving a three-and-a-half year jail term after pleading guilty to money laundering and deemed supply of a prohibited drug.
He was arrested when, in April 2017, Australian Federal Police investigating a Colombian organised crime gang operating in Sydney raided the property.
The two-storey house in Sylvania, Sydney is for sale for $2.76million (pictured)
A secret door behind a bookshelf in a southern Sydney house (pictured) led to a sophisticated drug operation by a Colombian gang
Inside they discovered two hidden rooms accessed via a fake bookshelf.
Flipping a switch the bookshelf automatically retracted revealing a rudimentary drug lab containing cocaine, cannabis, cannabis resin, a substance used to cut drugs, and scales.
Investigators also found mobiles phones and electronic equipment that can sweep a room for surveillance devices, or ‘bugs’.
Two replica firearms and $130,000 in cash were found in other areas of the house.
Leon’s father was not charged with any criminal offence but agreed with a NSW Supreme Court ruling that the house be forfeited to police as an instrument of crime.
A raid was conducted at the house in 2017 where AFP officers found the rooms in a cellar behind an entrance disguised as a bookshelf
Australian Federal Police have seized the Sylvania property under the Proceeds of Crime Act
AFP National Manager Criminal Assets Confiscation, Stefan Jerga said the AFP was determined criminals would not get to keep the profits of crime.
‘We will charge offenders and seize the instruments and ill-gotten gains used to bankroll their lavish lifestyles,’ Mr Jerga said.
‘The AFP wants to ensure that when offenders are released from jail they no longer have the spoils of criminal activity at their disposal.
‘Law-abiding Australians work hard to buy their first home, they go to work, they pay their taxes and they save up for a deposit.
‘Organised criminals flout their greed and often use violence in accumulating their criminal wealth.’
The owner of the house (pictured) won’t see a cent with the proceeds of the sale going back into community crime preventions programs
The house is being listed for a sale price between $1.64 and $2.76million.
The proceeds from the sale of the house will go to the Australian Financial Security Authority to be placed in the Confiscated Assets Account.
The account is then used by the Minister for Home Affairs for community law enforcement initiatives.
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