Mangrove Mountain: Cannabis crop sitters Tan Phat Vo, 62, and Chuyen Van Ta, 55, sentenced

Two Vietnamese boat people who endured difficult childhoods only to end up working as “farm labourers” tending a $3 million cannabis crop have been sentenced.

Two men have walked out of court after being sentenced for cultivating more than $3 million worth of illegal cannabis at Mangrove Mountain.

Tan Phat Vo, 62, of Cabramatta, and Chuyen Van Ta, 55, of Edmondson Park in Sydney’s south west, faced Gosford District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to knowingly taking part in the cultivation of cannabis and cultivating a commercial quantity of cannabis.

It came after officers from the Drug and Firearms Squad’s Cannabis Cultivation Team began Strike Force Harthouse in 2019 to investigate the large scale cultivation of cannabis across NSW.

All smiles: Crop sitter Chuyen Van Ta, 55, of Edmondson Park, leaving court with a woman after he was sentenced. Picture: NewsLocal

In March 2020 strike force investigators began surveillance on a rural property at 11 Pemberton Hill Rd, Mangrove Mountain, which had a number of commercial greenhouse structures on site.

An agreed set of facts state police observed four of eight greenhouses had cannabis growing in them while a number of other greenhouses housed waste cannabis in various states of decomposition, which indicated the harvesting of previous cannabis crops.

On June 22 police observed Vo and Ta arriving in a Toyota Hiace van registered in Ta’s name before they were captured on body worn video loading cannabis plants into the back of a ute.

The men were arrested and taken to Gosford Police Station where a Vietnamese interpreter was arranged but both men declined to be interviewed.

Crop sitter Tan Phat Vo, 62, of Cabramatta, leaving Gosford District Court. Picture: NewsLocal/NSW Police

Police seized a total of 996 cannabis plants, which officers estimated to have a street value of more than $3 million.

The facts state 730 of the plants were being grown under enhanced conditions with nutrient-rich water and artificial lights, while a home on the property had been converted into a “grow house” for seedlings.

Ta’s DNA was found on a water bottle, a bottle of Mountain Dew, a toothbrush and reading glasses found at the site.

The facts state there was no evidence either man leased the property or funded the set up of the operation.

Massive haul: Vo and Ta were arrested after police from Strike Force Harthouse seized $3 million worth of cannabis from a property at Mangrove Mountain. Picture: NSW Police Force

The court heard Vo led a “somewhat impoverished life” and after his father was brutally executed in Vietnam when he was just a toddler, he spent seven years in a refugee camp before immigrating to Australia on a boat.

The court heard when he was unable to secure loans to establish a farming business through conventional banks, he turned to members of the Vietnamese community, which appeared to work fine for years until a disastrous crop in 2019.

After this the court heard he could not make his repayments and was coerced into becoming a cannabis crop sitter.

The court heard Ta had a similar upbringing, in that he fled Vietnam by boat only to be attacked by Thai pirates, which saw him become addicted to heroin as a coping mechanism.

Oh what a feeling: Both men were arrested loading up a Toyota ute with cannabis and were later spared any significant jail time. Picture: NSW Police Force

Ta was convicted of possessing and supplying heroin but had no criminal offences since 2005.

His barrister told the court Ta spent almost eight months in custody on these charges before being granted Supreme Court bail and had since gained a job as driver for a poultry processing plant.

“These guys are farm labourers, they’re always the ones who are at greatest risk of getting caught and bear the brunt of the criminal justice system,” Ta’s barrister Roland Keller told the court.

Judge Alister Abadee said both men committed the offences out of financial “need rather than financial greed” and took into account their early guilty pleas which made them eligible for a 25 per cent discount on their sentence.

He sentenced both men to two years jail to be served by way of an intensive corrections order, minus the time they had already served when they were refused bail on these offences.

This meant Vo was sentenced to an ICO for one year and 11 months while Ta was sentenced to an ICO for one year, four months and five days.

Both men will also have to perform 240 hours of community service.