On Tuesday 10 February 2026, Victoria Police searched a rural property at Milnes Bridge, between Kerang and Cohuna, and four men were later charged while a fifth man from overseas remained on the run.[1] Police said five men, all from overseas, tried to run when officers arrived at a property that housed 10 large greenhouses, and that three of them jumped into an irrigation channel.[1] Officers arrested four foreign nationals, aged 39, 41 and two aged 51.[1] The men were charged with cultivating and trafficking a large commercial quantity of cannabis.[1] They faced Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday and were remanded to appear again on 13 May.[2] Police said the four men had not helped identify the fifth man, who they were working for, or how they came to be at the grow.[1]
Police allege they found about 4,700 cannabis plants of varying size and maturity inside the greenhouses, weighing more than 2.5 tonnes.[1] Police put the crop’s street value at $10 million.[1] The plants were to be destroyed after forensic examination, and investigators and forensic specialists spent three days dismantling the crop houses.[1] Officers also seized electronic devices, CCTV hardware and items allegedly used to bypass electricity.[1] Police allege the five men tried to escape from the 131-hectare property; Nine described the same site as 324 acres.[1]
Acting Detective Inspector Matt Pascoe, the Mildura and Swan Hill investigation and response manager, said police were looking for an Asian male of mid-age last seen fleeing into bushland, and that a thorough search had not found him.[1] Pascoe said removing significant quantities of illicit drugs was a win for community safety, and that cultivation and trafficking fuel organised crime groups.[1] He said there were no obvious links between this bust and others near Bendigo and Maryborough two years earlier, and that the investigation remained ongoing.[1]
