A 29-year-old Glen Waverley man has been charged with the murder of a man who was found dead in a Ringwood driveway in April after the victim was shot after midnight on a main road and left to stumble for up to 300 metres in a bloody and fruitless search for help.
Albert Biba was arrested on Friday following a string of police raids of homes in Brighton, Brighton East, Bentleigh, Vermont and Balwyn North as part of an ongoing investigation into cannabis cultivation.
On Saturday evening Biba was charged with murder and also charged with one count of cultivating cannabis.
The shooting allegedly occurred on Wantirna Road, Ringwood, about 1am on April 17, 2018.
Essendon man Andrew Toumayan, 28, was found in the driveway of a Barkly Street property with a fatal gunshot wound.
Biba faced the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Saturday evening for a remand hearing.
The court heard Biba would require an Albanian interpreter at subsequent hearings because his English is poor.
A duty defence lawyer told the court it was Biba’s first time in custody.
Friday’s police raids came after a series of homes in Melbourne’s northern suburbs were targeted last week and cannabis plants were seized from a Blackburn North home.
Biba remains in custody and is due to reappear in court on September 5.
Credit: www.theage.com.au