Eight Vietnamese gang members jailed following Smethwick house raid
Eight members of a Vietnamese gang with a cannabis farm empire capable of producing hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of drugs at six West Midland addresses were starting jail sentences today.
Trang Le, aged 26, who ran the operation with her boyfriend – Hung Nguyen, 34 – laundered £130,000 in just two months last year, a judge heard.
He was already in jail over another cannabis growing racket, but continued to 'manage' the enterprise from behind bars, giving her written advice on cultivating the drugs by referring to the plants as children, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
Others involved were couriers and gardeners, with official receipts revealing its 33-year-old banker, Thanh Doan, paid out more than £17,000 in four days to the 'brothers and sisters of the company', explained Mr John Evans, prosecuting.
Some of the women had £1,400 Louis Vuitton handbags and other luxury brand products, while one of the men had almost £10,000 cash hidden in his bedroom, the court was told. All were in this country illegally.
The gang was smashed after police raided a house in Rosedale Avenue, Smethwick and discovered a 'sophisticated cannabis growing facility', the court heard. There were more than 200 plants and 613 seedlings under cultivation.
Documents also disclosed that the premises had been rented by Trang Le, prompting a police swoop on the flat she shared with her partner in Hagley Road West, Smethwick. They discovered £1,500 cash there, the keys to the Rosedale Avenue address and an iPhone with details of other properties where drugs were being grown.
These were at West Boulevard, Quinton, Reservoir Road, Oldbury, Hagley Road West, Bearwood, Wolverhampton Street, Darlaston and Baldwins Lane, Hall Green, the court was told.
The gang had either overstayed permits to visit this country or been smuggled in on the back of a lorry, and several were sharing a flat in upmarket The Hemisphere in Edgbaston, where police found almost £10,000 cash in the bedroom of 31-year-old Son-van Vo, the court was told.
Nguyen was jailed for four years 10 months, Le received three years four months, Doan three years, Vo two years nine months, while three 'gardeners' Anh Tran, 32, Nhi Hoang, 22, and Hien-thi Mai, 29, were each given two years. Courier Thuy Duong, 48, received 18 months custody. All were of no fixed address.
All the defendants admitted conspiracy to produce cannabis between 2010 and 2013 except Doan, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to convert criminal property, an offence that Le also admitted.
