Illegal Emigrant Jailed For Helping on Drug Farm

Just recently an illegal emigrant found himself before the Durham Crown Court after helping set up a cannabis farm in a disused pub. These cannabis plants helped its owners yield £250,000 a crop. The court room went on to hear that sixteen rooms of this former Carlton Arms pub in Castlereagh Street were professionally fitted out to grow the drug.

Mark Giuliani, the prosecutor, said that most of the cannabis plants had been removed by a police raid last October. The pub itself had been rented by, what the landlord described as, Chinese men in Range Rovers. The place had been let as it was, but later was fitted out professionally for the growing of cannabis.

The prosecutor went on to say that, in the time it was operational, it is possible that there were three crops, although it is more likely there were only two. Experts estimated that the amount of cannabis produced would have sold on the streets for about £500,000.

The court was also told that the fingerprints of the Vietnamese illegal emigrant were found on the plastic sheets in several of the rooms. The emigrant's prints were on file, because he had previously been arrested in a BMW in Yorkshire when he was found to have £1,500 cash, which was tainted with cannabis.

Through an interpreter, the illegal emigrant said that he had been to the pub in Seaham, but only to clean the communal kitchen. He was convicted by a majority verdict after a three day trail. The man was jailed for three years and will be deported at the end of his sentence.