Shenghe Chi: Ashfield man to plead guilty to growing 277 cannabis plants in Gorokan
One of three people arrested as part of a series of dawn raids across Sydney and the Central Coast, which netted police more than 1500 cannabis plants worth $5.8 million, has told a court he would plead guilty to his part in the large-scale drug syndicate.
Central Coast
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Shenghe Chi, of Ashfield, declined a Mandarin interpreter when he faced Wyong Local Court on Tuesday charged with growing 277 cannabis plants and diverting electricity at a hydro house at Gorokan.
The 28-year-old told the court he pleaded guilty to both offences while a third charge of knowingly exposing a child to the large scale cultivation of a prohibited drug was withdrawn and dismissed by the Director of Public Prosecutions solicitor.
Magistrate Caleb Franklin accepted the pleas and a signed, agreed, set of facts but did not formally record a plea until the charge certificate could be amended to reflect the withdrawal of the third offence and adjourned the matter for two weeks.
Chi was arrested at 202 Wallarah Rd, Gorokan, during a series of simultaneous raids on rented homes at Granville, Dundas Valley, Eastwood, West Ryde, Epping and Northmead on October 1 last year.
It came after a neighbour tipped police off about one of the properties in Sydney, which prompted detectives from the State Crime Command’s Drug and Firearms Squad to establish Strike Force Garford to investigate the hydroponic cultivation of cannabis.
Police also arrested a 27-year-old woman and another man, 43, both from Bankstown.
They remain before the courts charged with large scale cultivation offences.
At the time Detective Acting Superintendent Michael Cook, from the drug and firearms squad, said “elaborate hydroponic setups” were discovered in eight homes, including the Gorokan address, where police seized a total of 1500 plants with an estimated street value of $5.8 million.
According to Det Sup Cook, the Bankstown pair were “middle management” in the operation.
“The two Bankstown people would source the homes and rent them out in fake names, and the Gorokan man was a house sitter, who was at the property at the time of the raid,” he said.
Appearing via video link Chi will reappear at Wyong Local Court on June 2 where he will be committed for sentence in Gosford District Court at a later date.