Pair are jailed over cannabis factories
6:29pm Tuesday 13th May 2008
A judge has handed out jail sentences of 20 months each to two men who were caught in the police operation to target suspected cannabis factories in Bradford.
Judge Roger Scott said there had been "an explosion" in such factories following the reclassification of the drugs by the Government and the latest police successes had netted plants which could have produced skunk cannabis with a street value in excess of £120,000.
Illegal immigrants Chen Chan, 44, and Phong Tran, 22, were both arrested earlier this year when drugs officers executed search warrants at the two houses where they were employed as so-called "gardeners".
On January 2, Chan was arrested at a terraced house in Plumpton End, Wrose, by officers.
Prosecutor Richard Gioserano told Bradford Crown Court that the house had been rented by three other men who had paid the £650 bond and £650 rent in cash.
When officers entered the house they found the whole property had been converted into a cannabis factory. More than 500 cannabis plants were seized.
Chinese national Chan, who came to this country in 2002, said he had been in Bradford for two weeks and had been promised £200-a-week.
Lawyer Anne-Marie Hutton said her client, who now faced deportation after serving his prison sentence, had gained nothing from his involvement and had lost everything.
Both Chan and Tran admitted producing cannabis and Judge Scott sentenced them both on the basis that they were employed as gardeners to water and feed the crop being grown.
Prosecutor Timothy Stead told the court that Vietnamese national Tran was arrested when police raided a terraced house in Heaton Road, Bradford, on January 15.
Officers found lighting equipment and 25 plants in the cellar and more than 300 plants in various stages of growth were discovered in other rooms of the four-storey property.
Tran told police it had cost £12,000 to make the journey to the United Kingdom and he had been offered the job of tending to the plants.
Barrister Nigel Hamilton, for Tran, said young men like his client were seduced into paying agencies to bring them to the UK by the promises of work and untold riches.
He said Tran was not an uneducated man and he had dreams of becoming a successful businessman.
Jailing Tran Judge Scott said he had been a caretaker or gardener for the cannabis factory and added: "Since the reclassification of cannabis some years ago mostly Vietnamese and Chinese operations have developed, certainly in West Yorkshire, whereby vast amounts of cannabis are grown for public consumption."
He told Chan that he had also been a gardener or a caretaker for an identical operation.
"The value here is £67,000 as opposed to £61,000 in the previous case," said Judge Scott.
"My sentences over many weeks have been consistent one with the other and with recent Court of Appeal directions in London.
"I say to you what I have said to many other Vietnamese and Chinese defendants that since the Government reclassified cannabis to Class C there has been an explosion in the number of cannabis factories in the main organised by Chinese and Vietnamese illegal immigrants. All set up to produce on a large scale skunk cannabis."
- A third man Chinese national Long Lin, 37, of no fixed address, pleaded not guilty to producing cannabis and possessing cannabis with intent to supply. His case was adjourned for trial on June 9 and he was remanded in custody.