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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Australia: Vietnamese Gangs Using Peasants To Grow Marijuana
Bernama Sunday 14 Apr 2013 Police figures released to the Sunday Herald Sun reveal almost 50 per cent of people charged with growing marijuana on a commercial scale are Vietnamese. The newspaper said organised criminals are recruiting poor Vietnamese illegal immigrants to watch the plants for as little as A$50 (RM160) a week. Vietnamese living in Australia - many who have overstayed visas or incurred gambling debts - are also lured into tending the plants. Police estimate that each "grow house" can make A$2 million (RM6.4 million)a year, and many syndicates control dozens at a time. The gangs are reported to have bought new houses in outer-suburbs here in which to grow the crops and spend more than A$30,000 (RM96,030) on dozens of high-powered lights and industrial-scale charcoal filters to nurture the plants. The gangs use the profits to buy and import amphetamines from Vietnam and sell them on Australian streets. The Australian Crime Commission chief executive John Lawler told the Herald Sun indoor cultivation of cannabis had increased over the past five years. Police said much of the local cannabis trade had links to international crime gangs. "We are seeing that a lot of the money is being remitted back overseas to Vietnam," police told the newspaper. "We are also seeing that the profits from the cannabis crops can be used to buy amphetamines." In a recent bust, three Vietnamese nationals were charged after police found 3,000 plants at 21 addresses here. One man charged had been in Australia only four days. http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v7/wn/newsworld.php?id=941987
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