Inspector Roy Robinson pictured with a previous drugs haul
Three men found with £43,000 worth of cannabis in Lisnaskea last year have each been sentenced to three years in prison.
Xuan Van Nguyen (46), of Greenville Road, Bloomfield, Belfast, Anh Tuan Pham (45), of Gerraint Road, Bromley, Kent and 32-year-old Trung Quoc Phung, of Harold Gibbons Court, Victoria Way, London were sentenced at Dungannon Crown Court on Thursday after each pleading guilty to the single charge of cultivating cannabis.
The charge dates back to an incident in Lisnaskea on Wednesday October 22, 2014. At approximately 8.30pm police stopped a van containing a cannabis production unit at the Moorlough Road near Lisnaskea. Equipment and a quantity of suspected cannabis plants, believed to be valued at approximately £43,000, were seized by police. The van was stopped by police officers who were on routine operations when they detected a particular smell. The three defendants were passengers in the van at the time and were arrested. It was later disclosed in court that the three had no local connections. In an earlier High Court bail hearing it was claimed that Nguyen had been in the area sightseeing.
Speaking at the time of the initial arrest PSNI inspector Roy Robinson said it was clear these men were moving the drugs, most likely to an address in Fermanagh. “They were clearly moving the drugs. They had electrical equipment, they had bulbs and clearly they were moving this to another property. They had already been grown somewhere else to that size and can grow to three or four foot. They were in the process of moving them to a property I suspect is in Fermanagh.”
All three men had been in custody since the original incident after a number of bail applications were denied. When sentencing the defendants the judge took into account the defendant’s early guilty pleas. Each was given a total sentence of three years in prison, with a licence period of 18 months.
To read more.. Subscribe to current edition
Receive quality journalism wherever you are, on any device. Keep up to date from the comfort of your own home with a digital subscription.
Any time | Any place | Anywhere