One of Merseyside’s biggest-ever cannabis farms was worth up to a massive £13m every year, new calculations have revealed.
Four Vietnamese men, who helped grow a massive secret cannabis farm in high-rise flats in Everton – were jailed for a total of just over 13 years today.
But they were just the pawns, operating at the strict orders of much more powerful gangmasters who’d set up the widespread weed factories in Candia Towers, Jason Street.
Candia towers on Jason Street, Everton, where the cannabis farm was found
The growers, who sat solemnly in Liverpool Crown Court dock, were told they would be deported back to Vietnam after serving their separate 40-month prison sentences in the UK.
Le Nam, 49; Van Nguyen, 36; Thanh Dong, 49 and Doan Quynh, 39, regularly tended to the ‘sophisticated’ crop system, which was capable of producing a yield every five weeks.
They barely left the building, with Le Nam admitting to police not going outside at all over a four week period, as they fed and watered the sizeable crop.
New calculations of the annual profits now put the figure at higher than initially predicted, with sums of £13m every 12 months, investigators believe.
The Vietnamese men looked after cannabis farms spread across eight flats on different floors, with the promise of a share of the spoils from mob bosses who directed the whole criminal enterprise.
The cannabis farm found in Candia towers on Jason Street, Everton
But those percentages of the profits never materialised, beyond one-off payments of £200, and the senior operators are yet to be caught by Merseyside Police.
The huge cannabis farm was discovered when patrolling officers noticed a strong smell coming from the flats and then spotted tell-tale air vents attached to the windows.
Further checks revealed circuit breaks in the electricity system and windows covered with heavy-duty black plastic sheeting to deter any prying eyes.
The four Vietnamese men were found inside one of the flats, and a total of 2,055 plants were uncovered, able to produce 174,675 grams of cannabis every year.
The haul found when police entered could have netted, alone, between one and two millions pounds.
Scented candles were also found close to the crop in an unsuccessful bid to try and mask the stench of the Class B drug.
The Vietnamese workers all lived in the Everton tower block, but after completing their sentences, will be flown back to their native country.
Le Ban Nam, 50, of Candia Towers, Everton, was jailed for three years and four months after pleading guilty to the cultivation of cannabis
Thanh Duc Dong, 50, of no fixed abode was sentenced to three years and four months after pleading guilty to the cultivation of cannabis. Police discovered 2,000 cannabis plants worth up to £2m at flats in Candia Towers, Everton in June 2015.
Quynh had argued he was a victim of people trafficking, but Home Office enquiries proved that claim to be false, and he pleaded guilty to growing cannabis, like his three accomplices.
Dong had arrived in Britain legally which was a source of ‘joy and pride to his family’, but which now had turned to ‘shame, embarrassment and ridicule’, his barrister said.
Doan Quynh
Van Nguyen
Nguyen told UK authorities his involvement in the plot began when he was contacted by a mobile telephone call, and was ordered to visit Candia Towers – initially thinking he was needed to ‘move furniture.’
The vast cannabis farms were all bolstered by extra security, with an added interior door fitted to stop either police or rival drugs gangs gaining entry.
The high-rise building, with 60 flats inside, was mostly occupied by foreign families, and was a common location for asylum seekers arriving in Liverpool.
When police eventually got inside, they discovered flats awash with plants across three separate floors – three, six and eight levels off the ground, which took two days to dismantle.
Heat lamps, pots, compost, rubber glovers and face masks were all seized by officers during the clean-up, with experts later concluding each yield, would be collected for sale every five weeks.
Police remove heat lamps, pots and compost from the flats
The Vietnamese were taken advantage of during the drugs operation, being promised up to 9% return on the spoils, but never pocketing anything.
Some, like Quynh, were in the UK illegally, as he explained to police he’d come to Liverpool ‘in the back of a lorry’ after flying into France.
Qunyh, acquitted of a cannabis-related offence in 2013, has a young family in Vietnam, with two children aged three and 16, and a wife who he had hoped to send the money from the Everton farms to keep them safe.
Nguyen, the court heard, was married to a Vietnam woman who lives in Liverpool, and became a first-time father six weeks ago.
His barrister said: “If he is deported, he will never see that child again. He’s an illegal immigrant. He came here on a lorry. He was always going to end up in the hands of rogues.”
Paul Wood, representing Nam, added: “The people who live in some really poor conditions, they are the people who take the risk, but are at the {low} end of the pecking order, and are sadly before the court.
“My client had been given a hollow promise, and received nothing from it.”
The four Vietnamese men, who all wore plain grey sweatshirts, and had no friends or family in court, spoke very little English and needed an interpreter to translate the legal hearing.
Judge Andrew Hatton told them: “All four of you were involved in a joint enterprise to produce a significant amount of cannabis in a professional and sophisticated set-up.”
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/