An illegal immigrant shattered his ankle after leaping bare foot from a second floor factory window during a police drug’s raid.
Vietnamese national Minh Nguyen, who has been smuggled into the UK illegally, was desperately attempting to flee from officers who stormed the cannabis farm where he was working for a major drug’s kingpin when he made the 15-foot jump.
The 45-year-old wasn’t wearing any shoes and suffered a “significant lower limb injury” due to the impact of the landing, Newcastle Crown Court was told.
Police were alerted after builders renovating a three-storey building on Cattle Market, in Hexham, on May 14, raised concerns that there may be a cannabis farm present due the fact wires leading to the upstairs of the property appeared to be overheating.
A police unit forced entry through a locked door and rapidly made their way up to the second floor.
Gurjot Kaur, prosecuting, said: “Once inside, officers saw the defendant climbing out of a rear bathroom window.
“He was found in a nearby bin storage unit. He wasn’t wearing any shoes and appeared to have sustained a lower limb injury.”
Miss Kaur added: “He said he flew into a state of panic when the police arrived and, in terror, jumped out of a window, badly injuring himself in the process.”
The court heard there were around 350 cannabis plants, with a potential yield of 27.8 kilos, worth up to £83,400.
The farm inside the commercial building was stretched across four growing areas in two upper floors and featured dozens of cannabis plants being force grown beneath an array of lighting, ventilation and heating equipment.
It is one of a huge number of Vietnamese-run cannabis farms that have exploded across the UK in recent years.
Gangsters are smuggling hordes of illegal men into the country – using small boats and lorries – and forcing them to work in hundreds of drug farms scattered across the north and midlands to pay off their debts.
In June drugs kingpin Roman Le, 37, who made millions running string of cannabis farms across Britain whilst exploiting illegal migrants into forced labour, was snared.
Le, 37, swanned around the country in a luxury Bentley Continental, posing as a property developer surveying his empire of residential and commercial properties, even putting up scaffolding around the buildings to make it look like work was taking place.
But behind the faccade, his illegal lieutenants were busy inside the properties manufacturing huge quantities of cannabis that was being sold for millions on UK streets.
The Vietnamese-born gangster ran at least eight cannabis farms in residential and commercial properties, as well as a storage facility housing both equipment and harvested cannabis.
Nguyen pleaded guilty to being concerned in the production of cannabis and was jailed for eight months. He pleaded guilty on the basis he came to the UK as an illegal immigrant in 2021 and was later introduced, via Vietnamese associates, to two unknown foreign men who told him that he would be provided with accommodation and food in return for looking after the cannabis plants.
He claimed he had been at the property for just three days before his arrest and said he had been told he was not allowed to leave. He added that he played no part in setting up the farm and simply did as he was directed.
Jailing him Mr Recorder Anthony Dunne said: “You were put into this cannabis farm and you were employed to look after the plants that were growing there.
“However within a few days the police had been called, they entered the cannabis farm and you were arrested.
“You injured yourself in your attempts to escape before the police could arrest you.”
The recorder added: “There were about 350 plants in this operation with a potential yield worth on the street up to about £80,000.”
The court was told that on release Nguyen will face deportation.