HEAVILY armed officers from the Tactical Operations Unit deployed a Taser on one of the four men arrested during a dramatic sting at the Bomaderry railway station on Tuesday evening.
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Strike Force Lagul detectives investigating a series of break, enter and steal offences in the Shoalhaven, were joined by Tactical Operations Unit and specialist officers including Public Order and Riot Squad to arrest four men and a woman at the railway station around 6pm Tuesday.
With the area blanketed in darkness by a blackout, the officers pounced on the group of three local men and a woman who were meeting another man from the train, who had allegedly travelled from interstate.
Officers had to subdue one man, who allegedly resisted officers, with a Taser, while a smashed rear window on a car indicated the vigour that was used during the arrest.
Police conducted four search warrants across the Shoalhaven Local Area Command and arrested a fifth man at Old Erowal Bay.
Three of the arrested men appeared in Nowra Local Court on Wednesday.
John Oates, 48, of Eastfield Circuit, Ferndale, Western Australia was charged with robbery armed with an offensive weapon conspiracy to commit offence and conspiring to take an illicit drug, methamphetamine, from an unknown person while armed with an offensive weapon, a shotgun.
Police allege Oates conspired with a co-accused Anthony Levi Jones to commit the offence.
Jones, 35, of Attunga Avenue, Sanctuary Point, also known as Adam Kobald, was charged with aggravated break and enter and commit an indictable offence, knowingly deal with the proceeds of crime, disposing of property, in company rob while armed with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.
Police allege Jones broke into the Cignal Tobacconist at Vincentia between June 6 and 7 this year with two co-accused, stealing $15,459 worth of cigarettes and $7200 in cash and between 5.30pm on June 23 and 6.30pm on June 24 at Sanctuary Point robbed an unknown person of a quantity of methamphetamine, while armed with a dangerous weapon, a shortened shotgun.
He also allegedly conspired with Oates, who travelled to Nowra from Western Australia, to commit the offence.
Ryan Mathew Ford, 21, of Roulstone Crescent, Sanctuary Point was charged with aggravated break and enter committing a serious indictable offence and dealing with the proceeds of crime.
All three men appeared before Judge Rob Rabbidge, bail was not applied for and was formally refused and they will reappear in Nowra Local Court on August 5.
Two other men were arrested as part of the operation.
A 25-year-old man, arrested at the railway station, was taken to hospital after complaining of chest pains.
He has been released from hospital and will be spoken to by police at a future date.
A fifth man, aged 19, was arrested shortly before 7.30pm Tuesday at a property on Christiansen Avenue, Old Erowal Bay and charged with aggravated break, enter and steal and dealing in the proceeds of crime. He was bailed to appear in Nowra Local Court on July 14.
The 20-year-old woman arrested at Bomaderry railway station was released pending further inquiries.
In April, detectives from the State Crime Command’s Property Crime Squad and officers from the Shoalhaven Local Area Command formed Strike Force Lagul to investigate a number of aggravated break, enter and steal offences in the area, including two ram raids on service stations at Falls Creek and Wandandian and the aggravated break, enter and steal at a tobacconist in Vincentia.