Scent gives away crop

Two remanded after being found guilty

TWO men caught growing cannabis plants in a factory at North Geelong were locked up yesterday after being found guilty by a jury.

Vietnamese nationals Hoc Thai Nguyen and Van Thanh Nguyen were convicted of cultivating a commercial quantity of the narcotic after a Geelong County Court trial that started last week.

Coincidentally, three other Vietnamese-raised men pleaded guilty to cannabis cultivation charges in the same court a day earlier after raids on crop houses in Queenscliff and Curlewis, also last year.

The North Geelong operation the Nguyens cared for was uncovered by police on February 21 last year in a Kim Court factory protected by an electric fence.

After cutting the power to the fence, officers raided the property, following the strong scent of cannabis to find 337 plants growing or drying in six rooms.

An elaborate hydroponic set-up with electricity bypass was being used to grow the plants, prosecutor Michael Sharpley told the jury.

The court heard the Vietnamese men arrived in Kim Court as the police raid was happening.

On seeing an officer outside the factory, the men sped off in Hoc Nguyen’s Honda, accelerating through another industrial site, but the police caught them on Saunders Rd, near the Cowie St intersection.

The jury heard police found a variety of items that connected Hoc Nguyen, 28, and his 52-year-old passenger to the cannabis operation in the factory through their DNA.

The men told officers they had only met each other the previous week, and had travelled to Geelong from Melbourne together.

After being found guilty, they applied to have their bail extended before sentencing in a month’s time. But they were unsuccessful. Judge Richard Smith said both men were facing jail terms, and remanded.

Although both men had paid sureties to secure bail originally, the judge said the temptation for them to abscond before sentencing was now too great.

Judge Smith heard Van Nguyen, who has Australian citizenship, has a prior conviction for cultivating cannabis, while the younger offender was awaiting a decision on his application for residency.

The men will be sentenced on July 27. should be