Trio jailed over crops
Cannabis grown in two houses
THREE Vietnamese men who grew cannabis crops on the Bellarine Peninsula while abusing their permits to visit Australia were jailed by Geelong County Court yesterday.
Dung Ngo, 33, got the longest stretch, jailed for two-anda-half years after earlier this week pleading guilty to cultivating a commercial quantity of the narcotic plant.
Hung Nguyen, 34, and Quan Le, 33, also pleaded guilty to cultivating the drug, but not a commercial quantity. They both got two years’ jail.
“Without cultivation of the crop there would be no sale of it and no distribution,” Judge Richard Smith said.
The court heard police busted the men in July last year, and raided suburban homes in Queenscliff and Curlewis, finding large quantities of cannabis growing inside under hydro- ponic equipment.
In total, 130 plants (weight 53kg) were found at a home on Stokes St, Queenscliff, and 84 plants (37kg) at a property in You Yangs Ave, Curlewis.
Ngo and Nguyen were arrested on July 27 by covert surveillance officers, who watched them leave the Queenscliff house in an Alfa Romeo car.
Although the men denied knowledge of the cannabis crop in Queenscliff, the court heard the vehicle — registered to Nguyen and driven by Ngo — contained mobile phones and keys that connected them to the cultivation.
It also contained keys to the home of the Curlewis property.
Hours later, shortly after midnight, police guarding the home in Curlewis saw a car pull up nearby, with the driver, Le, skulking away to hide.
He was arrested in a neighbouring yard, and told police he had never been to the area and had become lost driving.
But in his pockets officers found keys to the house and car, which had hydroponic supplies in it.
The court heard the three defendants each had a wife and child at home in Vietnam, and all came to Australia on tourist visas, planning to work — against the provisions of those permits — and send money home.
While Ngo and Nguyen overstayed their tourist visas, Le had applied for refugee status, and had been on a bridging visa since 2015, which also disqualified him from working.
The judge noted the men had pleaded guilty, but said they’d all been dishonest to police when first arrested.
All three of the men will be become eligible for parole six months before their full-term ends, but the court heard it was likely they would each be taken straight to immigration before being deported to Vietnam.