A Toolamba cannabis crop worth an estimated $22 million to $26 million was the biggest hydroponic cannabis crop ever discovered by police in Victoria, a court has heard.
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Police discovered 8805 cannabis plants, ranging from seedlings to mature plants, growing at the Waugh Rd property in 2022.
Duy Duc Dao, 31, pleaded guilty in Shepparton County Court to cultivating a large commercial quantity of a narcotic plant.
The court heard the plants weighed a total of 5089kg, while a further 88kg of dried cannabis was also discovered.
The crop was more than 20 times the amount of cannabis that constitutes a large commercial quantity of the drug.
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.
Prosecutor Andrew Grant described it as a “comprehensive” set-up at the property, with irrigation to each individual plant, while there was also a drying room in the packing shed.
There was so much cannabis at the property, that much of it had to be loaded on to trucks to be weighed on a weighbridge.
“It was a very well-run business and a very productive farm,” Mr Grant said.
“It’s an extremely grave example of the offence given the quantity and the sophistication.”
The court was told Dao and four other men were arrested at the property when police searched it on February 9, 2022.
Two greenhouses were used to grow the cannabis plants, while a packing shed was used to propagate seedlings and as a drying room.
One of the co-accused will face court in May, while the other three are on the run from authorities after being granted bail.
The lease for the property was in Dao’s name, as was the electricity bill.
Mr Grant said Dao, a father-of-two who is originally from Vietnam but is an Australian citizen, was living at the Toolamba property at the time.
Mr Grant said Dao claimed he signed the lease to the property in August 2021 after “he was asked to by some Vietnamese people who didn’t speak English”.
He was paid $5000 to sign the lease.
The cannabis was burnt after its discovery in February 2022.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Dao’s defence counsel Bradley Newton said it was suggested to him to sign the lease because someone with an Australian Business Number was needed to do so.
Mr Newton argued that it was “hard to fathom” that his client would have signed his name to the lease and the electricity account using all of his own details if he knew what the property was going to be used for.
Mr Newton told the court Dao did not have any prior criminal convictions, and had not been in trouble with the law since.
He said he was a man of otherwise “good character” who had run his own pergola business that had failed, leaving him with debts.
“This is not a syndicate guy who doesn’t have priors because he was able to fly under the radar,” Mr Newton said.
“This is a law-abiding citizen who got into trouble financially before COVID.”
The seized cannabis was burnt after it was weighed and counted.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Mr Grant said Dao “must have stood to gain significant financial benefit” from the crop.
He also said the property owner spoke fluent Vietnamese and English, so it was “unpalatable” that Dao would be needed to sign the lease because he spoke English.
Dao spent 136 days in custody since his arrest, before he was bailed in June 2022.
He has now been remanded in custody again while he awaits his sentence later in May.
The cannabis crop being burnt in 2022.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
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