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Drugs

The 24-Hour Flower Shop Everyone Thought Was a Drug Front, Was a Drug Front

No twist ending here.
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Correction made 24 July 2018: An earlier version of this article stated that the flower shop was in Carlton. That was an error. The business in question was NOT in Carlton.

If you live, hang out, drink or buy flowers in Melbourne’s inner north you probably know about the 24-hour florist on Lygon Street. Not because you needed a bunch of carnations at 4AM, or maybe you did, no judgement. But because it was widely assumed to be a drug front. Well ladies and gentlemen, turns out it was!

The store was used as a storage space for ecstasy, weed, ice and the depressant 1,4-Butanediol by a syndicate lead by Khaled Moustafa. Cops found out about Moustafa’s operation after he brought a kidnap victim to the store. The Herald Sun reports that while police were aware of the drug ring, the only managed to crack it after searching the store following the kidnapping report.

The florist was only one part of a huge operation that imported literal tonnes of drugs, which police found stored in other properties around Melbourne’s inner west and north. Moustafa plead guilty to the drug charges, and will be sentenced at a later date.

Since the story broke, a Reddit thread has popped up with locals sharing (pretty suss) memories of the space. They really weren’t fooling anyone. Guess you’re gonna have to make your drunk, floral purchases somewhere else.

While we’re on the subject, here is an article about another 24-hour flower shop that we’re pretty sure is just a 24-hour flower shop.