Cannabis cultivators caught with €1.2 million worth of drugs

Six year jail terms after €1.2 million drugs haul


21 drug busts in Mayo during the last year

Áine Ryan and Ciara Galvin

TWO Chinese cannabis cultivators are set to spend six years in jail after they were found growing €1.2 million of cannabis plants in a Swinford warehouse. It is the biggest haul of cannabis plants in the county and a major coup for local gardaí who, supported by the Divisional Drugs Unit, discovered Shi Dong He and Xiao Fei Weng growing 1,498 plants at a specially modified warehouse, Unit 16, at Swinford Business Park. There was also €8,342 worth of cannabis herb found at the growing shed where the men also lived.
Both men pleaded guilty at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court last week where Judge Carmel Stewart warned about the ‘serious implications for society’ if such an amount of drugs were released onto the market for sale.   

‘Money spinner’
Speaking to The Mayo News yesterday, Sgt Jim Cadden, who heads up the Divisional Drugs Unit, said his team, with the help of local gardaí, had busted 21 other cannabis growing operations in the county in last year alone. They discovered operations from Ballina to the quiet village of Ballintubber, where a rented house, just up the road from the historic abbey, was being used to cultivate the illegal drug.  
“Cannabis growing is a big money spinner at the moment and there is big demand for the drug. We caught 42 dealers in 2012 many of whom are before the courts. Some of them have absconded though or returned to their native countries,” Sgt Cadden said.
He confirmed there were Chinese, Polish, Lithuanian and Irish nationals involved in these operations. The sergeant called on the public to be vigilant and watch out for suspicious or very frequent comings and goings at rented houses or commercial properties.

Sentencing
AT last week’s court hearing, both Shi Dong He and Xiao Fei Weng of Unit 16, Swinford Business Park, Swinford, pleaded guilty to the charges under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Sgt Thomas McIntyre told Judge Carmel Stewart that following information he received in September 2012, he got a warrant to search Unit 16 at Newpark, Swinford where 1,498 cannabis plants and 417 grammes of cannabis herb was discovered.
The sergeant told the court that the search unearthed ‘a very sophisticated business’ where there was a wooden and insulated structure built inside the warehouse, 12 by 30 metres in diameter.
He said that while Mr Shi Dong He had made admissions, Mr Xiao Fei Weng was less forthcoming claiming he believed they were growing flowers.
Under questioning by prosecuting counsel, Mr Pat Reynolds, Sgt McIntyre explained how both accused came to live in Ireland. He told the court that Mr Xiao had entered the country illegally, via Geneva Airport in 2009.
While he had come to the attention of gardaí he had disappeared under the radar by June 25, 2009.
Co-accused, Shi Dong came to the country on October 21, 2000, and studied for a time. He has a partner and an Irish-born child but by 2010, having failed to comply with certain registration stipulations, lived in the country unlawfully.  
Judge Stewart was told that Shi Dong had good English but his co-accused had not and the courts service had thus employed an interpreter.

Poverty
MR Bernard Madden, counsel for Mr Xiao, said his client, who has two teenage children back in China, had paid €30,000 to be smuggled into Europe.
“Essentially my client’s motive here was economic gain based on the poor circumstances of his family in China. I think it is fair to say they were at the bottom of the food-chain in this particular enterprise,” Mr Madden said.
He mooted the possibility of deportations orders but Mr Reynolds said such orders were outside the parameters of the circuit court.  
Mr Eoin Garavan, defending counsel for Mr Shi Dong said his client was aged 35 and had a nine-year-old child.
Mr Garavan argued that the two men before the court were ‘essentially gardeners’ who simply relied on a card for instructions. He said there was no proof of their remuneration.
Judge Stewart said she was more concerned about the large amount of the drugs and described the case as a ‘very serious matter’ adding that had the drugs been released onto the market for sale it would have had ‘serious implications for society’. Although agreeing that the men were at the ‘bottom of the chain of command’, Judge Stewart imposed a six-year jail term on both men, backdating this to October 24, 2012,  when the men entered gardaí custody.