Six barons of £3m drug dynasty jailed

Jun 7 2009 by Adam Jupp, Sunday Sun

As the investigation into the racket gathered pace, farms were found on Hartburn Place, Fenham, where 191 plants were seized, Wingrove Avenue, and Cloverdale Gardens, Heaton, where 404 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of £216,000 were recovered.

At Hyde Terrace, Gosforth, more than 500 plants were taken away, which would have produced drugs with a street value of more than £250,000, while at Gainsborough Grove, Fenham, 443 plants, which could have yielded 9kg of skunk were nabbed.

In Gateshead, hash factories were found on Grasmere Street West, Bewick Road, where 380 plants capable of producing 6kg of skunk were recovered, High Lanes, Felling, and Westbourne Avenue, Shipcote.

In North Tyneside, 500 cannabis plants, were seized in a house on Queen’s Road, Whitley Bay, while in Northumberland, raids were carried out at Gray Street, Cambois, Blyth, leading to the seizure of 400 plants, and Front Street, Camperdown.

In Sunderland, operations were squashed on Roker Baths Road, where the yield could have been 14kg, and Havelock Terrace, where the crops had already been harvested, and The Broadway, where 6kg of dope were seized. Finally, a rented warehouse at Stable Court, Grey Street, Crook, had also been turned into a lucrative farm. The estimated value of all the drugs seized is more than £3m.

Jie Wang’s wife Ling Wang, 31, was sentenced to eight months, while Guo Lin, 35, got, three years, four months and Ding Hui Wang, 19, was caged for four months. Bang Xiang Lin, 25, was jailed for 12 months.

All pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce cannabis, while interpreter Wei Wei, 26, was given an eight months suspended jail term for her role.

The jail terms follow sentences dished out to seven so-called “gardeners,” who were placed in the properties to cultivate the crops.

Nan Xue, 20, got 16 months youth detention, having been arrested at Hartburn Place, while Yuan Gong Fan, 40, was sentenced to 18 months. Hui Wang, 36, was jailed for 18 months and Lin Fa Wang, 46, got 18 months. Tao Li, 31, was sentenced to 20 months, while Ming Sun, 40, was also caged for 18 months. Wen Zheng He, 24, was given 21 months.

Gosforth Neighbourhood Det Sgt Mick Lindsay, led the investigation. He said: “I’m delighted with the sentence passed by the court in relation to gang leader Jie Wang. This takes some of the area’s most prolific cannabis farm ringleaders off the streets and makes our communities safer.

“We carried out a prolonged investigation which spread across the force and wider and worked hard to uncover links between the farms and the key people involved.

“These people aren’t farmers or gardeners, these are people who masterminded the set up and the sentence today sends out message that we will not stop until we find the people behind these farms.

“We very rarely now uncover cannabis farms with Chinese links, so that shows the investigation has had the desired affect. We just won’t tolerate this sort of activity in our neighbourhoods.”