Illegal immigrant admits drugs charge

A Vietnamese illegal immigrant has pleaded guilty to running a cannabis factory worth more than £100,000 in Smethwick.

Minh Van Tran, aged 27, admitted producing 366 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of £109,800 at Sandwell Magistrates Court yesterday.

Miss Kelly Hale, prosecuting, told the court Tran was found by police at the property at 2.30pm on Thursday.

She said officers discovered the factory in the loft space of the building.

The loft was covered in white sheeting and there was a full hydroponic set up, with heat lamps.

They discovered eight large cannabis plants and 358 smaller plants. Miss Hale said: "In interview the defendant said he lived at the address for free, and all that he was asked of him was to water the plants, and turn the lamps off and on on a daily basis. He did say he didn't know what the plants were, and didn't know that they were illegal."

Mr Baldev Mehay, defending, told the court that Tran had come to the UK illegally via Russia.

He said: "His father had paid an agent 20,000 American dollars to get him here. He was promised a better life in England for that sum and he ended up watering these plants in the loft of this house."

Mr Mehay told the court that Tran did not know the people who owned the plants, but he was there to let them in, and cook and clean for them. He said that Tran, who is of no fixed address, wishes to return to Vietnam as soon as possible.

Magistrates decided to remand Tran in custody and he will be sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court on December 16.

Meanwhile, Hiem Thi Le, aged 38 of Albert Road, London, appeared at the court and pleaded not guilty to a charge of producing cannabis.

She was remanded in custody, and will next appear at the court on November 23.

In September cannabis plants worth around £40,000 were seized during a raid on a house in Oldbury. Around 200 plants were found when police swooped on the property. Police said it was a sophisticated set-up and the plants were found in three upstairs bedrooms with a full hydroponics set-up.

And in June it was firefighters who discovered a cannabis factory when called to tackle a house fire in West Bromwich.

Fire crews from West Bromwich and Tipton were called to the blaze in a three-storey house which was thought to be empty.

But when they went in to tackle the flames they discovered the building was being used for a large-scale cannabis growing operation.

Homes either side of the terraced house, in Holyhead Road, near The Hawthorns, had to be evacuated as crews tackled the flames. The fire is believed to have been caused by someone dropping a cigarette.