Kha Nguyen jailed for 20 years for running drug empire
A MAN who ran a Breaking Bad-style meth lab from his inner city Melbourne apartment and turned over about $10 million in just eight months has been jailed. Police found a large amount of cash in a hired red Ferrari during raids. The man also left a vital clue that helped officers jail him.
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A MAN who ran a Breaking Bad-style meth lab from his inner city apartment made it easy for police to jail him by keeping meticulous records of $10 million in drug deals.
Kha Nguyen was jailed today for 20 years for running a drug empire which sold heroin, cocaine, ice and ecstasy, turning over about $10 million in just eight months in 2015.
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The 40-year-old has spent much of his adult life prison, including serving 10 years in Vietnamese prisons for drug offences.
He was released from a Vietnamese prison sometime in 2013 and returned to Australia before setting up a clandestine ice laboratory in the apartment in Clarendon Street, Southbank.
Police raided the apartment in September 2015, finding vast quantities of drugs, manufacturing equipment, a heroin press and a gun.
They also seized $22,000 in cash from a hired red Ferrari and a notebook recording Nguyen’s large-scale drug trafficking.
The notebook showed Nguyen had received $6 million selling drugs, while shelling out $4.4 million to suppliers.
It also showed he had sold more than 20 kgs of heroin, 2.2 kgs of cocaine, 1.5 kgs of ice and 900 ecstasy tablets between January and September 2015.
The father of two’s mistress was also caught when police raided the apartment after Nguyen was recorded drug dealing on telephone intercepts.
County Court Judge Philip Coish denounced Nguyen’s offending, describing his drug dealing as “wide ranging”.
“Your prospects of rehabilitation are cloudy,” Judge Coish said.
“You were predominantly a wholesaler.”
Nguyen has been in jail since his arrest.
Judge Coish today sentenced him to 20 years jail, ordering him to serve at least 16 years before he is eligible for parole.