News, West Midlands
The head of a gang who posed as a property developer to run a multi-million pound network of cannabis factories has been jailed.
Roman Le, 38, from Birmingham, headed the group who ran at least eight farms in residential and commercial properties across the UK, as well as a storage facility housing both equipment and harvested cannabis.
Le sourced the properties by buying or renting them and, in some cases, put up scaffolding around the buildings to make it look like building work was taking place, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
He was jailed for six years and two months at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday having been found guilty of conspiring to produce cannabis.
The court heard that the 38-year-old worked with fellow gang members Yihao Feng, 29, from Manchester, and David Qayumi, 36, from Birmingham, to source and operate the properties.
Among them was the former Big Bamboo nightclub in Coventry which was raided by the NCA and West Midlands Police in October 2020.
Officers found more than 1,500 plants, worth more than £1m, spread over three floors.
Other locations included a former public house in Birmingham and an old hotel in Lancashire.
Many of the farms were staffed by Vietnamese or Albanian illegal migrants, some of whom were likely being exploited because of their immigration status, an NCA spokesperson said.
Qayumi posed as a businessman, working with Le to buy, rent or sublet the properties, while Feng acted as an operations manager for the group, making sure the factories kept working and that what was happening inside was kept a secret, the NCA added.
Both Feng and Qayumi pleaded guilty to conspiring to produce cannabis but Le denied the charge, claiming he was a legitimate businessman who had no knowledge that the properties he had interests in were being used for cannabis grows.
Feng and Qayumi were previously handed prison sentences totalling six-and-a-half years between them in July.
