A Melbourne venue is under investigation following two deaths from suspected overdoses. Police are investigating Room 680 in Hawthorn after several punters were found to be under the influence of illicit drugs last weekend.
As ABC News reports, police were called to Room 680 after two men and two women were taken to hospital following drug overdoses. They follow the death of a 17-year-old St Albans resident in July and a 19-year-old Deer Park woman who died in May last year.
Both died on site at the venue and police are now investigating whether the deaths were the result of overdoses as well as trying to uncover the source of the drugs. Insp Kerin Moloney told ABC News police have begun cracking down on venues in the area.
The news comes as police in Victoria continue their ongoing crackdown on clubland, which just last month nabbed two Melbourne music promoters accused of trafficking $275 million worth of ice.
Back in April, The Railway Hotel in Brunswick and Two Floors Up on Lonsdale Street were subject to unrelated raids, with three men involved in the management and operation of the venues charged on trafficking offences.
Drug task force detectives reportedly seized thousands of ecstasy pills, methamphetamine, and cash. Police charged 47-year-old Chris Lytras, believed to be the owner of The Railway Hotel, and venue manager Paul Polito, 37, with trafficking offences.
Police later told Melbourne Magistrates’ Court that Railway Hotel manager Lytras, and Polito, who allegedly acted as a “concierge” for drug buyers, sold large quantities of drugs out of the upstairs office of the popular venue.
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Drug trafficking at the venue was reportedly so commonplace that an undercover operative was at one point forced to line up outside Lytras and Polito’s office with other drug buyers. Melbourne DJ Jason Kolbeck, co-owner of Two Floors Up, was also brought up on charges.
Then in May, another local DJ and another nightclub promoter were arrested, accused of attempting to smuggle a kilo of ketamine into Australia. DJ Kasey Roy Taylor and promoter Robert Charles Oung allegedly ingested about 500 grams of the drug each and attempted to smuggle it in from Asia.
Taylor and Oung were examined under the Customs Act and charged with importing a marketable quantity of an illegal substance, before being taken to the Alfred Hospital where police waited for the drugs to pass through their systems.
