Vietnamese men caught growing 541 cannabis plants in north Mayo jailed

TWO Vietnamese nationals who were detected growing a total of 541 cannabis plants with a street value of €432,800 in an agricultural shed in a rural part of north Mayo were both sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.

Houng Nguyen (34) and Anh Pham (24) both of no fixed abode appeared before Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court where they were sentenced after pleading guilty to the cultivation of cannabis plants at Ballybeg, Kincon, Ballina on March 31, 2023.

The two men had initially claimed they were trafficked into Ireland to work as 'gardener's growing the plants' but Gardaí stated that follow-up investigations found no proof of these allegations.

The court heard that the two men were living in a mobile home which was located on a farm in an isolated area between Killala and Ballycastle when Gardaí searched the property on March 31, 2023.

Garda Peter Kearns, who was a member of the Mayo Divisional Drug Unit at the time, explained that gardaí received confidential information that cannabis was being cultivated at the location.

He explained that a farmyard shed was divided into three rooms with each room equipped with growing lights, a fan and ventilation pipe. There were 541 cannabis plants in total discovered with 293 cannabis plants in one room, 132 in another and 116 in the third room. Cannabis herb worth €506 was also found in the mobile home along with five mobile phones.

Garda Kerins explained that a Ford Focus was also on site with the keys found in the mobile home while there was food found in a freezer in another shed.

He said he knew nothing about the two defendants other than they are Vietnamese nationals. He said the two defendants both claimed they were picked up by a man in a van in Belfast and taken down the country to work on a farm.

Foreign account

When asked by Judge Eoin Garavan about the property, Garda Kerins said it was leased and the electricity bill was being paid through a foreign account based in a middle eastern country. As well as the shed where the plants were growing, Garda Kerins said there was another building where soil and feed for the plants were stored and another building where an 'ample amount of food' for the men was stored.

Garda Kerins added that during the search there was 'no cash whatsoever' recovered in the property. When asked about a high electricity bill which an operation would run up, Garda Kerins said that unless gardaí do a search on electricity bills they are not informed by any electricity provider of any extensive bill associated with properties.

Diarmuid Connolly, counsel for Mr Nguyen claimed his client was at the location for two and half months before the detection. Garda Kearns accepted he was a 'gardener' looking after the plants and down the food chain in the drug trade and no evidence of him making a huge profit.

Mr Connolly said his client was working off a €8,000 debt owed to people in the UK and in Vietnam and that his parents had died when he was young.

When questioned by Niall Flynn, counsel for Mr Pham, Garda Kearns confirmed the two men had no travel documents and the car at the scene was not registered to his client or the co-accused man. Mr Flynn said his client claims he was trafficked from China to the UK before making his way to Belfast and onto Mayo where he believed he was told he was going to work on a farm. He added his client told gardaí he did not know what cannabis plants were and he was only at the location a short period of time before the detection. Garda Kearns said he could not prove or disprove how they arrived into the jurisdiction.

'Indentured slave'

Mr Connolly described his client as an indentured slave working off a debt and was involved in growing the plants out of economic duress and there was no economic gain for him. Mr Flynn said his client is eager to return to Vietnam and was giving an undertaking to leave the jurisdiction upon his release. The two defendants have been in custody since they were arrested on March 31, 2023.

Judge Eoin Garavan said he was not convinced the two defendants were trafficked and was of no doubt there was something in the operation for them even if it was to pay off debts. He did accept they operated at the lowest rung of the ladder and they have been good prisoners since they were remanded in custody.

He said he believed they spun a story to suit themselves and imposed a three year prison sentence with the final six months of the sentence on the undertaking they will leave the jurisdiction and not return for ten years. The sentence was also backdated to March 31, 2023.