THE MASTERMIND of an organised crime group which ran a cannabis farm at a disused nightclub in Coventry has been found guilty.
Roman Le, 37, from Birmingham, headed a gang which operated at least eight farms in residential and commercial properties across the Midlands, North West and north Lincolnshire.
Le bought or rented the properties by posing as property developer. In some cases scaffolding was put up around the buildings to make it look like building work was taking place.
Le worked with co-defendants Yihao Feng, 29, from Manchester, and David Qayumi, 36, from Birmingham, to source and operate the drug farms which together were capable of making millions of pounds worth of cannabis.
They included the former Big Bamboo nightclub in Trinity Street, Coventry, which police raided in 2020 after National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators watched Le visit the building.
They had to smash through several reinforced doors to access the interior, where they found around 1,500 cannabis plants, worth more than £1million, spread across three floors.
Officers also recovered sophisticated planting, growing and irrigation equipment, valued at around £150,000.
The electricity supply at the property had been bypassed, with the equipment inside directly and illegally connected to the commercial supply from the street outside.
The trio were also linked to cannabis farms in the Midlands, North West and north Lincolnshire, many of which were staffed by Vietnamese or Albanian illegal migrants, some of whom police believe were likely being exploited because of their immigration status.
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.
Following an eight-day trial at Birmingham Crown Court, he was found guilty. Le was remanded in custody, and all three men will be sentenced on July 4.
NCA Branch Commander Kevin Broadhead said: “Roman Le claimed he was a legitimate property developer, but in actual fact he fronted an organised crime gang capable of producing millions of pounds worth of cannabis.
“While he and his co-conspirators oversaw these operations, buying and renting properties on behalf of the growers and reaping the profits, the actual people put to work in them were often exploited migrants who had been smuggled into the UK.
“Working with policing partners, we were able to prove these men were involved a sophisticated criminal enterprise.”
