Six barons of £3m drug dynasty jailed

Jun 7 2009 by Adam Jupp, Sunday Sun

SHROUDED by a suburban smokescreen, Far Eastern villains set up a £3m dope dynasty.

But today, six people are beginning jail terms totaling more than 14 years after their lucrative cannabis conspiracy was smashed.

Ranging from low-level “gardeners” to regional managers, the hierarchy of Chinese hash farmers spread their tentacles across the North.

Police busted 19 drug factories in Newcastle, Gateshead, North Tyneside, Northumberland, County Durham and Sunderland, all set-up in private rented accommodation.

Detectives hailed the sentences handed-out at Newcastle Crown Court. Det Chief Insp Jim Hetherington said: “This is a fantastic result for the force as the investigation has disrupted some prolific drug production being carried out by a small group of people.

“This sends out the message that we have a variety of investigative tools and ways to trace the masterminds behind conspiracies such as this, and we will not rest until we get them.”

Operation Harp 4 was set-up to smash the network of cannabis farms established during 2008. Chinese illegal-immigrants identified private rented accommodation as potential locations, then used an interpreter to negotiate tenancies with unsuspecting landlords.

False passports were used as ID, with cash paid up front for rents. Members of the gang would then transform the premises into a farm, before installing other illegal immigrants to act as gardeners, who would live in the houses and tend to the plants.

Tim Gittins, prosecuting, said: “Without exception, premises were left damaged by the ad-hoc fittings for light and ventilation, soiled and damp from the farm and generally in a significant state of disorder, some premises requiring full re-wires to pass safety requirements for tenanted properties. The approximate total damage to the properties where compensation claims have been made is in excess of £140,000.”

He added: “But the profit to the gang in relation to each establishment was massive, with each property being able to yield several crops per year and each crop of hundreds of plants bearing enough leafy material to sell tens of kilos of cannabis bush for several hundred thousands pounds.”

Kingpin Jie Wang, 28, a qualified pharmacist, was found to be the link between them all. He was arrested after forensic evidence from the first farm to be busted, on Regent Farm Road, Gosforth, Newcastle, led officers to him.

Plants capable of producing 1.3kg of skunk were found and a search of his car revealed documents and a sat nav system, which linked him with other undiscovered farms.

Wang, jailed for eight years, had set up an extensive network of gardeners to look after the farms he was controlling. Bang Quan Lin, 30, played the role of “decorator”, travelling up from London to install sophisticated heating and lighting equipment, along with automatic watering systems in premises.

He was linked to eight farms through paperwork, including his membership of Tyneside casinos, and DNA found on cigarette ends and drinks cans left at the farms. Lin was jailed for four years.