Illegal immigrant jailed for running cannabis farm

Published 16 Sep 2009 14:27

A CHINESE peasant who allowed himself to be smuggled into Britain where he managed a £120,000 cannabis farm in Sauchie on behalf of Triad gangmasters has been jailed for four years.

Minhua Chen oversaw the day-to-day operation of a "highly sophisticated" indoor drug farm in a luxury home in an upmarket estate.

He mixed nutrients in the bathroom and fed them through sophisticated water tubes into "bank upon bank" of cannabis plants packed into all six bedrooms of the house, built only four years earlier at Whiteyetts Drive.

His indoor secret garden - complete with special lighting, compost and fertiliser - was discovered after nearby homeowners reported "strange activity and odd smells" at the house.

When police attended they detected a strong smell of cannabis from outside the detached home, and obtained a search warrant. After breaking down the door they found illegal immigrant Chen, who was brought to Britain by people traffickers in 2000, cowering behind upturned bedroom furniture in the living room.

Stirling Sheriff Court was told that a total of 249 cannabis plants were being tended by Chen.

Each one, grown to maturity, would have yielded three ounces of the active drug - a total of nearly three and a half stone of highly-psychotropic 'skunk' cannabis with a street value of £119,520.

Police said the cultivation was linked to organised criminals from South East Asia, including China and Vietnam.

Depute fiscal Keri Marshall, prosecuting, said, "Residents in the street raised suspicions regarding activity at the house as all the windows were covered and there were no signs of life other than occasional visits from South-East Asian men.

"Police forced entry and detained the accused. A search of the house revealed that the six bedrooms had been converted and were being used to grow cannabis plants.

"All the 249 plants were healthy and around half way through their 12-week growth cycle and were flowering to a significant degree."

Miss Marshall added that Chen was later interviewed and said he had been staying at the address for one to two months.

She continued, "He said that people unknown to him visited every one to two weeks, and he claimed that he did not know what the plants were.

"He stated that he had asked the visiting men, but they had refused to divulge this information and told him he asked too many questions. The accused agreed that was suspicious. He stated that he watered the plants once per day and switched the lights on for 12 hours every day. He went on to say that he did not receive any payment for doing this - only his food and board.

"Police have confirmed that the accused would appear to have effectively been a gardener. The equipment recovered from the locus is worth a substantial amount of money, however it is not owned by the accused and the owner has not been identified.

"When he was charged the accused said he could not understand why he was being charged when he did not know what the cultivation was."

Chen (43), a prisoner at HMP Barlinnie, pleaded guilty to producing cannabis between 1 April and 21 May 2009 at the house in Whiteyetts Drive, Sauchie. His not guilty plea to being concerned in the supply of cannabis was accepted by the Crown.

Murray McAuley, defending, said Chen, a father of two, had been born to a farming family in China, one of 10 siblings. The lawyer said that against the background of a life "blighted by poverty", he had taken the drastic decision to enter Britain illegally, and was smuggled in "through the usual system of traffickers".

In London, he was befriended by "individuals" who let him stay at the house in Clackmannanshire on the condition that he looked after the plants that were already growing there.

Mr McAuley added, "He would have made no profit from the enterprise. He was quite clearly taken advantage of by a criminal gang who left him to take responsibility for their actions."

Sheriff Wyllie Robertson told Chen that he had been involved in a large-scale cannabis cultivation operation, and though he was a first offender and would not have shared in the profits of the scheme, no sentence other than prison was suitable. He added that he would recommend Chen for deportation after his sentence.

He said, "You have pled guilty to an offence of such gravity that your continued presence in this country is against the national interest."

Chen said nothing as he was led to the cells by security guards.

Detective Inspector Ian Motion, of Central Scotland Police's drugs unit, said, "This case shows, that with information received from communities, we will be unrelenting, and there is no hiding place from us."

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