But they were stunned when Strickland made admissions during an electronically recorded interview that he had bought $60,000 worth of cannabis each month for the past two years, which they later estimated to have weighed a total of 276kg and be worth $2.484 million on the street.

The alleged scale of the operation was contained in police facts tendered to Wollongong Local Court yesterday, where 36-year-old Strickland faced five counts of possessing or supplying a prohibited drug and one count of knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime. Strickland entered no pleas to the charges.

On Thursday morning, detectives from Lake Illawarra Area Command executed search warrants on his home in Dombarton Place, Horsley, and another in Compton St, Dapto, where Strickland also occasionally lived.

At Horsley police located a box inside a double garage that contained 24 plastic shopping bags of cannabis weighing 11.5kg, $42,780 in cash in the console of a ute parked in the garage, and 275 tablets of MDMA (ecstasy). In a walk-in robe inside the house they found $4000, a small amount of cannabis, digital scales and a box of resealable bags.

Strickland has denied knowledge of the ecstasy tablets, allegedly telling police "a mate must have put them there".

Police allege that inside the Compton St address a police dog gave a "strong indication" that drugs had been in different areas.

The court heard that during a record of interview, Strickland made full admissions to supplying cannabis over the past two years on an on-going basis and that he purchased at least $60,000 of the drug every month.

During an application for bail, defence solicitor Robert Stewart described Strickland as a hard-working man who had just started a business cleaning driveways and pathways as well as working full-time as a floor sander.

Mr Stewart refuted prosecution claims that his client would be a flight risk, saying he had strong ties to the community and that he had many potential clients interested in using the services of his newly established business.

Magistrate Les Mabbutt refused bail and remanded Strickland in custody to reappear on April 28.