Police have swooped on a Melton man believed to be one of the organisers of illegal hoon meets across the western suburbs.
The 21-year-old faces a string of offenses including reckless conduct endangering serious injury, intimidating an emergency service worker, incitement, affray, theft, handling stolen goods and criminal damage.
He was bailed to appear at the Sunshine Magistrates’ Court on 28 November.
Police alleged the man stole council street signs and roadwork signs, which were then used to illegally block streets to allow for hoon activity in suburbs including Derrimut, Altona and Sunshine.
Police seized a taser, several council street signs, roadwork signs and three balaclavas in a search warrant executed in Melton this morning (Friday, June 3).
The charges follow two hoon meets in the past week, including an incident where a police vehicle was swarmed by attendees.
The first incident took place overnight on Saturday, May 28 near the intersection of Boundary and Derrimut roads during which street signs were damaged and road signs were interfered with.
The second incident took place last night (Thursday 2 June) where it is alleged hoons performed burnouts in Ravenhall before moving onto Sunshine West and finally Altona.
North West Metro Road Policing Inspector Mark Arneil had a stern warning for hoons saying “this is not harmless fun”.
“All this dangerous activity does is put the broader community and yourselves in danger, while also needlessly wasting police resources who could be occupied elsewhere,” he said.
“We will be saturating hot spots in Melbourne’s west this weekend, and we’ll be monitoring event organisers and participants to disrupt any further activity.
“Operation Achilles has led to hundreds of hoons being charged – if we don’t catch you on the night, it’s only a matter of time before you receive a knock on the door.”
