Men jailed over Victoria’s largest cannabis crop

Both were jailed for 12 years and six months, and will have to serve eight years and four months before becoming eligible for parole.

The court heard police found 8805 cannabis plants of various sizes growing at the Waugh Rd property during a search on February 9, 2022.

The plants were discovered in two greenhouses on the property — one with 3371 plants and another with 2624 — as well as a packing shed that held 2410 cannabis seedlings being grown from cuttings under grow lights.

The total weight of the cannabis – including 88kg of dry cannabis that was found – was 5180kg.

The crop, which was grown in a sophisticated set-up that included individually potted and watered plants, was worth an estimated $22 million to $26 million if all the plants reached maturity, the court heard.

The crop was more than 20 times the amount of cannabis that constitutes a large commercial quantity of the drug by weight, and eight times more than what constitutes a large commercial quantity by the number of plants.

Both men were living at the Toolamba property at the time.

The court was told Dao, a father-of-two who is originally from Vietnam but is an Australian citizen, signed the lease to the property in August 2021 after he was asked to by some Vietnamese people who didn’t speak English.

Dao’s name was also on the electricity bill for the property, and paid $5000 for doing so.

When sentencing Dao, Judge Pardeep Tiwana said he accepted his defence counsel’s argument that he did not know what the property was going to be used for when he signed the lease and the electricity agreement in 2021, and as such, he regarded both men played the same part in the crime.

He said both men would have known later what was happening at the property.

Judge Tiwana said he did not accept the two men were just “crop sitters” and said they played an “important role” with the crop.

"You, along with others, sought to bring to fruition an illegal operation that would have yielded mouth-watering profits to those higher up in the hierarchy," he said.

“You chose to remain part of it for financial gain.”

Judge Tiwana said Dao had become involved in the cultivation to “improve your financial position”, as he was $70,000 in debt after a business he had with another person had ended in 2019, and then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and he was unable to work in his pergola business.

Judge Tiwana said Tran – who had been born in Vietnam, and worked in Taiwan for seven years before returning to Vietnam and then coming to Australia in 2019 on a tourist visa, -was now “likely to be deported” after he served his sentence.

While in Australia he had worked as a painter, cabinetmaker, and in construction and had sent money home to his parents in Vietnam.

“I accept you did it for money… it may provide an explanation, but not an excuse,” Judge Tiwana said of both men.

Both men did not have any prior criminal convictions, or anything since their arrest.

However, it was noted that Tran, and three other men who had been arrested, failed to appear at court for a trial that had been listed in July, and had not been found by police and was re-arrested for two months.

The other three men are still on the run.

In jailing the pair, Judge Tiwana said he accepted they were not the organisers of the cannabis crop, but said both “played an active role in tending the crop and maintaining equipment”.