Cannabis ‘gardeners’ face jail or deportation

An elaborate operation to grow cannabis in a Co Cork industrial unit, with about €800,000 worth of plants and a potential value approaching €10m, was discovered by gardaí.

Three “gardeners” were given five-year jail sentences, but Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin ordered the terms be suspended on their deportation from Ireland.

It emerged during sentencing at Cork Circuit Criminal Court that the process could be speeded up if the defendants volunteered for deportation.

Det Sgt Seán Leahy said the cannabis-growing operation at Unit 3, Springfield Industrial Estate, Youghal, on the night of Mar 12 had 12 separate compartments. In four of them, cannabis plants were in various stages of maturity under special lighting.

The three Chinese men in court yesterday were Gui Yu, aged 24, Jin Ping Chen, aged 26, and Zhen Jie Lin, aged 24, all of no fixed abode. All pleaded guilty to illegally cultivating cannabis.

Det Sgt Leahy said the parts played by people in a drug operation were often categorised by rungs of a ladder. In that sense, he said, the accused in this case were not on the ladder at all.