Police have pulled more than $20,000 cash from a safe at a woman's Mangerton public housing unit after a short footchase led them to the address.
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Demi Teresa Mauro will defend herself against 17 drugs, weapons and proceeds of crime charges stemming from a police search at her home last week.
Officers from the South East Region Enforcement Squad were patrolling Mangerton on Wednesday when a man ran from them on Johanson Crescent.
"A short investigation" led officers to a unit where Mauro is listed as the only lease-holder.
Police say they heard a lot of movement inside the flat before she came to the door.
The 30-year-old, who is subject to a Firearms Prohibition Order due to unrelated matters, allegedly admitted to having a recently-acquired "replica" or "kids' toy" firearm on the property, but refused to let police in to carry out a compliance check.
Officers returned with a search warrant.
Also inside was a gel blaster with trigger mechanism and spring-loaded magazine.
Officers found the safe, and the key that opened it, in the bedroom. They found $20,320 cash and almost 57 grams of methylaphetamine inside.
Mauro was arrested on Saturday and appeared in Wollongong Local Court on Monday as her lawyer, Caitlin Drabble, applied for bail
"She has no knowledge of the items that were there, barr the gel blaster," Ms Drabble told the court.
"Even though police say she's the [unit's] single occupant, they follow a male there."
In refusing bail, Magistrate Jillian Kiely noted the "extremely serious offences."
Mauro sobbed throughout proceedings and threw her head in her hands when the magistrate handed down her decision.
"They're not mine," she said. "It's not mine."
The matter will return to court on July 6.