Woman's link with Bradford cannabis factories (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Woman's link with Bradford cannabis factories

2:06pm Friday 3rd July 2009 in

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A Chinese woman traced through the BBC’s Crimewatch programme after she went on the run was today jailed for two and a half years for drugs and money laundering offences.

Mei Ming Yu, 27, featured on a Most Wanted list issued by West Yorkshire Police in January this year.

She had pleaded guilty at Bradford Crown Court to being concerned in the cultivation of cannabis, attempting to produce cannabis, money laundering and having a false passport.

Prosecutor Nicholas Barker said Yu was living at a fast-food restaurant in Leeds after coming to the UK from China.

She laundered £40,000 through her bank account and helped to rent houses where cannabis factories could be set up.

The court heard she was linked to two such factories – in Wightman Street and Grove Street, both in Bradford.

Yu’s barrister, Rodney Ferm, said she had made £2,000 from her criminal activities.

He told the court she was the mother of a young child and, as an illegal immigrant, now faced deportation.

The Judge, Recorder Ben Nolan QC, told Yu that although she was somewhat naïve she had taken an active part in setting up cannabis factories.

He added that she was a good and caring mother. He said he was keeping the jail sentence short enough for her child to join her at the prison.