A total of 7,567 plants were growing in 14 commercial-scale greenhouses on the 19-hectare property. Truong’s lawyer Alix McGregor said her client had been working as a gardener on the property and was only paid $1,800 over seven months to cultivate the crop.
We’d highlight our story earlier in the week about Vietnamese gangs using people like Mr Truong to grow cannabis illegally and the result of which has been the death of 39 people in the back of a freezer lorry in Southern England earlier this week.
Bonded Labour, Slavery & Illegal Cannabis Farms. A Worldwide Enforcement Issue
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports.
A Vietnamese man has been sentenced to seven years in jail for growing one of the biggest marijuana crops ever discovered in Western Australia.
Key points:
- The drugs, found on a property near Gingin, were worth more than $17m
- The police raid recovered enough cannabis to fill a 12-metre shipping container
- The man arrived in Australia in 2012 on a student visa, which had since expired
Nam Van Truong was sentenced in the Perth District Court after earlier pleading guilty to possessing the drug with intent to sell or supply.
The drugs had an estimated street value of more than $17 million.
When police raided Truong’s rented rural property near Gingin, north of Perth last year, they found enough cannabis plants to fill a 12-metre shipping container.
A total of 7,567 plants were growing in 14 commercial-scale greenhouses on the 19-hectare property in Red Gully.
At the time, WA Police Senior Sergeant Michael Rowson said he had “never seen anything like it” and said he suspected the crop was linked to organised crime.
Gardener’s visa had expired
Truong’s lawyer Alix McGregor said her client had been working as a gardener on the property and was only paid $1,800 over seven months to cultivate the crop.
He had arrived in Australia from Vietnam in 2012 on a student visa, which had since expired, and had moved to Perth in 2016 after working as a handyman in Queensland.
He was initially employed at the Red Gully property to build greenhouses for cucumbers after meeting a man in a restaurant in Perth in early 2018, the court was told.
He later had responsibility for looking after the cannabis crop and watching over the lighting.
Read more at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-30/gardener-jailed-for-growing-massive-cannabis-crop-near-gingin/11653016
