Chelsea weed bust: Judge warns Vietnamese crop sitter’s mates not to come here and break the law
A dope crop sitter has been told by a judge to go back to Vietnam and tell his mates to “play the game by our rules or they will get locked up” after he was busted with a stack of weed at a Chelsea home.
Inner South
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A judge has told a Chelsea crop sitter to tell his mates back in Vietnam “to play the game by our rules or they will get locked up”.
Judge John Carmody issued the warning after sentencing Minh Huu Dang, 30, in the County Court on September 20 after the Vietnamese man, who was in the country illegally, pleaded guilty to cultivate a narcotic plant in not less than a commercial quantity.
Police raided Deng’s Embankment Grove crophouse, busting him with 136 cannabis plants weighing more than 30kg on August 27 last year.
The court heard Deng was paid a $1000 a week to feed and water the plants and keep the house clean.
Deng, whose student visa had long expired by the time he was arrested, began the gig on June 11.
He had been looking after the plants for 11 weeks before his arrest.
When police stormed the home they caught Deng trying to do a runner by jumping out the back window.
Deng was taken to Moorabbin police station, where he made full admissions after a police botanist determined some of the seized plants were aged between 11 and 13 weeks.
He told police he had been recruited while working as a delivery driver in Springvale.
Deng told investigators his bosses “would bring and remove plants from the house regularly”.
Judge Carmody accepted Deng’s role in the “sophisticated operation” placed his offence in the low range.
“Nevertheless, your role as a resident crop sitter is a critical role in growing cannabis,” he said.
“While you are a relatively minor cog in a much larger criminal enterprise, the whole process fails unless people like yourself undertake the role of crop sitter.”
Judge Carmody sentenced Deng, who had already served 389 days in custody, to a maximum two years and three months with a non-parole period of 18 months.
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He said Deng would be deported back to Vietnam upon his release.
“Mr Dang, when you get out and go home, good luck with the rest of your life,” Judge Carmody said.
“And tell all your other mates over there in Vietnam, if they come to Australia, they have got to play the game by our rules or they will get locked up like you.”