Two men appear in court charged in relation to Co Down cannabis factory

The judge remanded the two men into custody and adjourned the case to 6 March. Credit: PSNI

Two men have appeared in court today charged in relation to a “large and sophisticated” Co Down cannabis factory.

Sitting side by side in a police cell, the Vietnamese men, 39-year-old Quy Nguyen and Anh Nguyen, 35, appeared at Lisburn Magistrates Court by videolink where they were each charged with four offences.

While they are jointly accused of cultivating cannabis, simple possession of cannabis and having the class B drug with intent to supply on 3 February this year, Quy is further charged with illegal entry to the UK on a date unknown and Anh is accused of remaining in the UK beyond his permitted time.

Giving evidence to the court a detective constable said he believed he could connect the men to their respective charges and applied for a media ban on their address where the cannabis factory was uncovered.

Following the discovery on Saturday, Detective Inspector Kelly said: "This is a large and sophisticated cannabis farm, which required searches by specialist police teams due to the size and set up. It is clearly a well organised operation which bears the hallmarks of an organised criminal gang. The closure of this operation will likely cause massive disruption to the criminals involved.

“We have seized a number of items for further examination, including a large quantity of suspected Cannabis.”

In court today, the officer said there was an ongoing operation at the property on the New Road in Hillsborough so he was seeking the reporting restriction but District Judge Rosie Watters said given the address is part of the charge and was read out in open court, “I don’t have the power to do that.”

A short time later prosecuting lawyer withdrew the application, revealing that the police themselves had disclosed the location in a previous press release.

As neither of the defendants applied for bail, the judge remanded them both into custody and adjourned the case to 6 March.

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