Kaipara cannabis operation: Five migrant workers jailed over $3m grow house bust

Vietnamese nationals in the Whangārei District Court sentenced for cannabis cultivation. From left: Nam Long Nguyen, Manh Hung Truong, Ho Van Canh, Van Duc Nguyen and Van Thao Nguyen. Photo / NZME

In the heat of summer, deep in the back bushes of the Kaipara, a cannabis grow operation with an estimated yield of $3 million was discovered with five Vietnamese men in charge.

It’s the second operation to come before the Whangārei District Court within a week where the farmers in charge have pleaded the same story: namely, they were duped into a visa scam.

“This is a tragic case when you look at the details and the personal circumstances of how they came to New Zealand in hope of supporting their families,” lawyer Connor Taylor submitted for each of his five clients as they were sentenced to jail.

Van Canh Ho, 43, Nam Long Nguyen, 44, Van Thao Nguyen, Manh Hung Truong, 47, and Van Duc Nguyen, 43, appeared before Judge Taryn Bayley on Thursday on a raft of cultivation and possession of cannabis charges.

Van Duc Nguyen was also charged with possession of a .22 semi-automatic weapon and 10-round clips of ammunition.

It follows the February 28 sentencing of Ngia Tran and Anh Nguyen, who were jailed for an operation running out of a Whangārei warehouse.

On February 20 last year, police in an aircraft detected several grow houses in the Kaipara region near Mamaranui.

By that afternoon they had obtained a search warrant for the property, which had a large bolted steel gate that had to be cut through.

Once inside, they discovered a large industrial-size cannabis grow operation in full swing and the five men dispersed around the property.

Three grow tunnels, on average the size of a 25m swimming pool, were found housing a total of 1485 plants, with 558 of those being almost 2m high.

Also located was 31.7kg of finished cannabis product and 240 seeds.

In total, the site had between $266,000 and $384,000 worth of finished product ready for sale.

Van Canh Ho, Van Duc Nguyen (who received the largest sentence) and Van Thao Nguyen at the Whangārei District Court. Photo / NZME

A yield test was done on the plants in growth, and it was estimated they potentially had a street value of between $2.5 million and $3m.

“This was a sophisticated industrial grow operation,” Judge Bayley said at the sentencing.

“You were all found at the scene of the cultivation and were effectively caught red-handed.”

The court heard Nam Long Nguyen was on an expired visa from July 2019, while the other four arrived on valid work visas within months of each other in 2023.

The court also heard they are all from the same town in Vietnam, although their counsel submitted that the men met only once at the location.

Taylor said the men had paid a Vietnamese brokerage their life savings to come to New Zealand to work legal jobs.

Nam Long Nguyen and Manh Hung Truong were jailed for their role in the operation. Photo / NZME

He submitted that when they arrived, however, the situation changed.

“It does not appear to be what is sold to them. There was a person supposed to pick them up, he wasn’t there.

“There was supposed to be somewhere to stay, there wasn’t. There was meant to be a job and the job wasn’t there.

“You land in this point where they don’t have a job or accommodation and invested so much into this scheme, and then this job is presented to them,” Taylor said.

“This is the harsh reality of these men who are exploited, taken advantage of, they don’t have a job and they need to sustain themselves.”

It was agreed by the Crown, Taylor and Judge Bayley that the men were merely the farmers of an operation that was already set up and owned by an unknown person.

The operation was located in a remote part of the Kaipara. Photo / Google Maps

“I acknowledge you were not the leaders of this operation.

“However, Northland has repeatedly been a region where organised criminal groups have set up and used growers like yourself to permit ongoing and serious drug offences,” Judge Bayley said.

The court also accepted that the men made very little money out of the operation, with only a few receiving a basic pay cheque.

Judge Bayley said that although letters were submitted from the men’s family and friends about the scam, there was no solid evidence to prove that claim to be true.

“Another reason I place no weight on those claims is because irrespective of how you got there, and irrespective of what you say or you were initially led to believe, you all remained at this property for five months cultivating cannabis.”

None of the men speaks English and their sentences were delivered by an interpreter.

Manh Hung Truong and Nam Long Nguyen were sentenced to two years and nine months in prison, Van Thao Nguyen two years seven months, Van Canh Ho two years four months and Van Duc Nguyen three years and six months to include the possession of the firearm.

The group will face deportation on release.

Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.