Gang jailed over drug factories

Sep 10 2008 by Sue McCann, Heswall News

MEMBERS of a gang of illegal immigrants who ran cannabis factories have been jailed.

They converted 11 houses in Hoylake, Wallasey, Prenton, Birkenhead and other parts of Merseyside to grow cannabis worth nearly £500,000.

In a raid on one of the houses, in King’s Gap, Hoylake, more than £85,000 worth of the drug was recovered.

Gang members who acted as “gardeners”, tending to the plants, were given shorter sentences, while more senior members got longer.

Dong Wang, 41, and Tian Li, 28, who were linked to more than one property and managed the operation, were jailed for three years. Zhi Wong, 53, Xiang Shi, 23, Xiao Liao, 51, and Letian Dong, 32, were given two-year sentences. Ng Leng, 46, was jailed for 28 months.

The men will be deported once they have served their time.

Judge Nigel Gilmour QC said: “You committed the crime so you could eat and support yourselves in a foreign country. “You know what you were doing was against the law.”

The court heard six of the illegal immigrants were smuggled into the UK from China. Most owed huge debts to people smugglers and claimed not to have been paid for their work in the drug factory.

At least two of the men had left China because they were persecuted for their religious beliefs.

The equipment used will be donated to local allotments.