Two men sentenced for role in drug production

Cannabis operation encouraging ‘misery’, says sheriff

Two men who ran a £60,000 cannabis farm out of a city centre house were jailed yesterday for a total of almost six years.

Kim Bao Liu was caught growing cannabis at an “industrial scale” cultivation in Dundee’s Ladywell Avenue, on the eastern fringe of the city centre.

He and compatriot Chung Chan Wang then sold the drug on.

Now the pair are starting lengthy prison sentences after a sheriff told them they were involved in a criminal business which “causes misery in our community”.

Giving evidence during the trial at Dundee Sheriff Court, Police Scotland Detective Constable Gareth Ewing said the drug was being produced for distribution on a national level.

Liu had been living in the house for months before police raided the property.

When they entered they found a sophisticated cannabis growing setup inside, with power packs, bags of soil, water pumps and sprayers found inside the property.

Despite Liu’s DNA being found on some of these items – and him being found with a key to the front door – he denied having anything to do with growing and supplying the drug.

Fiscal depute Eilidh Robertson told a jury: “He is stopped by the police with the key to a house, in which there is up to £60,000 of cannabis inside, in his pocket.

“His DNA is on items all over that house, including items which we can specifically link to the cultivation, such as the foil which was used all over the house and the sprayer.

“The gas man identifies him as ‘the man who lives in the house’.

“You may think that Kim Bao Liu is the unluckiest man in Dundee or you may think all this evidence stacks up to one obvious, common sense conclusion.”

Liu, 55, a prisoner at HMP Perth, denied charges of producing and being concerned in the supply of cannabis between April 29 and August 29 of last year while a second man, Chung Chan Wang, 31, also a prisoner at Perth, pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of cannabis.

He later gave evidence against Liu during the trial.

Anika Jethwa, defence solicitor for Liu, said: “He’s 55 and his health is not good.

“The language barrier has obviously caused issues for him in the prison setting.”

Paul Parker Smith, defending Wang, added: “He is under no illusion as to what will happen to him today.”

Sheriff Tom Hughes jailed Liu for three-and-a-half years and sentenced Wang to two years and four months in prison.

He said: “This court considers this to be a serious case.

“The purpose you were both engaged in is illegal and for good reason because of the difficulty and misery that this causes to our communities.”