Officers also say they seized knuckledusters, five illegal Airsoft pistols and a taser that was being kept by the fridge. 

Details of the colourful bounty were aired in Wollongong Local Court Thursday as 29-year-old Mathew Strachan applied for bail. 

Investigators allege they pulled $1145 from Strachan’s wallet and found almost another $18,000 in cash bundles after swooping on his Henricks Parade home, about 3.30pm Wednesday. 

The police action came two months after officers from Lake Illawarra Drug Unit came to suspect Strachan was supplying cannabis and MDMA from the property. 

Police will allege they found 23.33 grams of a white powder, including six small plastic bags containing a gram each, in the home’s downstairs “man cave”. Strachan allegedly told police the substance was cocaine cut with creatine to produce greater quantity and admitted it was for personal use as well as for selling at a profit of $30-$40 per bag. 

Other alleged findings included 93 grams of cannabis in a downstairs bedroom, chopped green vegetable matter and a bong in the laundry and $15,050 cash – three bundles made up entirely of $50 notes. 

Strachan, who has not been employed since October and does not receive Centrelink benefits, denied the money was the proceeds of drug sales. 

“That’s pretty much what I have been saving for a while now,” he told officers, according to a police account considered in court. “It came from the pokies and I sold two of my BMW.”

He allegedly admitted that smaller sums of cash found elsewhere in the room – a $500 bundle, two bundles of $350 and another bundle of $2355 – were from drug sales. 

Police allegedly pulled a collection of knives “of various sizes and styles, as well as a set of knuckle dusters” from a piano in the loungeroom, before finding the taser in the kitchen. The home’s freezer allegedly held 57 grams of MDMA and 84 ecstasy pills. Strachan allegedly admitted to supplying cocaine and cannabis, and intending to supply MDMA. 

He faces 13  drugs and weapons charges. He grew distressed in court on Thursday, as Magistrate Michael Stoddart refused him bail. The matter returns to court January 29.