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UK: Cannabis gang are jailed for 27 years
Neil McKay The Journal
Tuesday 20 Nov 2007 A GROUP of Vietnamese nationals are beginning jail sentences totalling 27 years after cannabis farms across the North-East were raided. The gang of 12, included one woman and two juveniles, who cannot be named, admitted conspiracy to cultivate cannabis when they appeared at Teesside Crown Court yesterday. The court put the value of the cannabis seized from addresses in Newcastle, Sunderland, Lanchester, Sacriston, Bowburn, Ushaw Moor, Sherburn Road and West Cornforth in County Durham as £220,000, but Durham Police said they believed the gang was responsible for cultivating cannabis to the value of £1.5m. Officers seized more than 4,000 exhibits including hoses, heating equipment, gardening gro-bags, bamboo shoots and lighting, from the addresses. Dozens of police officers carried out simultaneous raids at 9pm on Thursday, May 3 on a converted barn at Hunters Hall, Lanchester, and three houses at Ushaw Moor, Sacriston and Bowburn. About 1,000 ‘skunk’ plants were found in a converted barn in the Lanchester raid and between 700 and 800 plants were seized from the other properties – a three-bed semi-detached house, a three-storey house and a terraced house. Detectives and their uniformed colleagues also seized a number of vehicles and a large quantity of farmed cannabis, believed to be ready for sale, and thousands of pounds in cash. Detective Constable Mick Elsom, one of the officers who led the investigation, said: “The houses were completely blackened out at the windows. “The gang members would tell neighbours they worked nights and did not want to be disturbed during the day. “After the initial raids we discovered more cannabis farms, one at a house in Hollyhurst Road, High Heaton, Newcastle, and one at Wentworth Terrace in Sunderland, as well as other properties in County Durham. “The gardening equipment we seized would have been perfect for a champion tomato grower, but was being used for more sinister purposes.” In the houses raided police discovered a sophisticated set-up, with an irrigation system, reflective foil on the walls and ventilation ducts sliced into the ceilings. The electricity meter had also been bypassed to tap into the large amounts of energy needed to power the lamps without raising suspicion from suppliers. DC Elsom said electricity supplies were diverted to heat the cannabis, and the hoses to water them were operated from the baths in the rented properties. “Without the ventilation systems working the smell from the cannabis factories would have been a give-away. The smell was overpowering when we entered the properties,” he added. The police officer in charge of the raids, Detective Superintendent Ken Donnelly, said: “The public need to be our eyes and our ears when we target operations such as this one. “If they see people coming and going at unusual times we would urge them to contact us. That does not mean we would immediately act without any justification of course. “But we would rather suspicious behaviour was brought to our attention than for the public to turn a blind eye.” Sentenced yesterday were Nam Ah Ho, 25, Tung Hoo Ang, 19, Ling Tung Le, 18, Huy Quang Nguyen, 23, Hung Van Nguyen, 26, Hung Nguynen, 25, Son Tien Pham, 25, Hai Ven Tran, 28, Phan Trung, 25, Nyan Thang Cao, 18, and two juveniles. http://www.journallive.co.uk/
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