Pyalong crime: Minh Phan and Nga Tran plead guilty to drug offences

Two criminal lovers turned most of their regional Victorian home into a drug growhouse, but eventually the law caught up to them.

A Vietnamese woman has admitted to helping her partner plant cannabis, and water the plants in their major grow house, but says she didn’t know it was illegal.

Minh Van Phan, 45, and Nga My Tran, 42, pleaded guilty via video link to a string of drug charges in the Melbourne County Court last week after almost 50kg of cannabis was seized at their Pyalong property.

Court documents reveal authorities raised a Pyalong property in January this year and uncovered an “extensive, sophisticated” set up where 189 plants were growing taking up about 60 per cent of the floor space of the premises.

The plants weighed a total of 49.8kg with the pair arrested at the back door of the property.

In his police interview, Phan revealed he had also obtained electricity for the property with the expertise he had obtained from a friend and watching videos online.

A licensed electrical inspector identified an illegal connection into the unmetered section of the consumer means.

A plastic bag of cannabis found on the bench was also seized weighing 81.1g.

According to court documents, the couple started living at the Nicholson St property in July 2020.

Tran, 42, pleaded guilty to one charge of cultivating a cannabis plant, while her partner Phan, 45, told police he was growing the drug to sell it because he didn’t have a job.

He pleaded guilty to charges including cultivation of a commercial quantity of a narcotic plant and theft.

The matter will return to court at a later date.

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