Vietnamese 'gardener' caught fleeing £500k cannabis farm starts jail sentence

Police uncovered the huge haul in a raid on a disused hardware store in Wolverhampton Street, Dudley on November 3, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

The officers discovered over 500 plants being grown on the premises that was partitioned into a number of rooms, explained Mr David Lees, prosecuting.

The cultivation was taking place in three of these with a fourth being prepared for similar production when police swooped, it was said.

Tui Tran ran from the premises as police arrived and was chased into a nearby alleyway where he was arrested by officers, continued the prosecutor.

A second suspect was also detained at the scene and is due to appear in court on February 6, revealed Mr Lees who concluded: "A very substantial amount of drugs were being grown and it is estimated that one harvest would have produced 20 kilos of cannabis."

Police reckoned that with three crops a year the farm could have cultivated up to £500,000 worth of the drug.

Mr Simon Hanns, defending 30-year-old illegal immigrant Tran, said the man had been smuggled into this country from Vietnam 'by the usual route' and now wanted to return home as quickly as possible.

The lawyer claimed: "He was promised £2,000 for looking after the plants but received nothing because the enterprise was rumbled by the police and now he has been left to carry the can."

Tran of no fixed address admitted being involved in the production of cannabis and was sent to prison for 28 months by Judge Nicholas Webb.

Judge Webb told him: "Photographs show that this was a carefully planned and well organised operation. "There were rows and rows of plants and it looked like the kind of thing one is used to seeing at a garden centre.

"Plants in two of the rooms were very close to harvesting and your role was significant because it was motivated by financial reward.

"You must have been aware of the scale of the operation and you will almost certainly be deported when your sentence has been completed," he said.