Vietnamese national to be deported over cannabis farm conviction
Xuan Su Nguyen was arrested inside a shed in Shellharbour. (Supplied: NSW Police)
In short:
Xuan Su Nguyen has pleaded guilty to participating in a criminal group and activity after he was arrested in a shed filled with cannabis in Calderwood last year.
Nguyen was one of 10 people arrested at the property, where cannabis had recently been harvested.
What's next?
Four co-accused have pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in October.
A Vietnamese national is set to be deported after police found him trying to dismantle a cannabis farm, with a magistrate likening his case to modern-day slavery.
Xuan Su Nguyen was one of 10 people arrested at a farm in Calderwood, south of Wollongong, last year as part of a large NSW Police drug operation.
Police raided the semi-rural property, just outside a large housing estate in the new suburb, in May last year.
They discovered the 59-year-old and nine other people inside a large farm shed filled with cannabis leaf and arrested them.
The property contained six commercial-sized polyethylene greenhouses as well as the shed.
Almost 100 kilograms of the illegal drug was seized.
The large shed in Shellharbour was found with drying trays containing cannabis. (Supplied: NSW Police)
Nguyen pleaded guilty in Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday to one count of participating in a criminal group and contributing to a criminal act.
He appeared in a video link from Villawood Detention Centre where he had been in custody for almost 12 months and was assisted by a translator.
Nguyen escaped a sentence, with Magistrate Lucas Swan noting he would be deported by the Commonwealth after the conviction.
The court heard agreed facts that Nguyen arrived at the property just before police, and was part of a criminal group attempting to dismantle the cultivation operation to avoid detection.
The court heard his arrest came soon after arriving in Australia to visit his daughter and he had spent a total of 15 months in custody.
He was bailed four months after his arrest, but immediately had his visa revoked and was taken into immigration detention.
In his sentencing, Mr Swan agreed with the defence lawyer's assessment of Nguyen's situation as "tragic".
"We see this all too often, especially Vietnamese nationals, it's almost a form of modern-day slavery it's tragic," he told the court.
More guilty pleas
Four other people pleaded guilty in the case. (ABC Illawarra: Kelly Fuller)
Four of Nguyen's co-accused appeared in Wollongong court on Wednesday.
Quang Huy Tran, Linh Hai Quan, Thi Hue Tran and Quoc Hung Au entered pleas of guilty to two charges — participating in a criminal group and contributing to criminal activity and supplying prohibited drugs at a commercial quantity.
Agreed facts tendered to the court in Quang Tran's case outlined a complex police surveillance operation leading up to the May arrests.
The facts stated that after the arrests, police took DNA evidence from gas bottles and gloves, and conducted a search of a phone seized from another person on the property.
The search uncovered several photographs, including one showing Quang Tran driving a tractor and another of him and other people sitting inside the farm shed.
The six greenhouses on the property contained cannabis roots which had been recently harvested.
"A cooler containing ice and several unopened cans of energy drink were located in one of the greenhouses suggesting the harvest had been recently completed," the facts read.
The four co-accused will return to the District Court for sentencing October.