# Scotland exports more cannabis than it imports as Triad farms grow



## FruityBud (Feb 20, 2011)

Scotland has become an exporter of cannabis as Triad gangsters launch ever more factories.

Secret court papers show there are now greater quantities of the drug leaving the country than coming in.

Traditionally, most hash bought here has come from countries such as Holland and Jamaica.

But the shock revelation came to light in legal documents relating to a Proceeds of Crime case against a convicted thug suspected of being a Triad gang member.

In the papers against William Wan, a Government lawyer claims: "It is now well recognised that cannabis is produced in many unlawful factories situated throughout the Central Belt of Scotland and elsewhere.

"The illegal cultivation of cannabis in Scotland is immensely profitable.

"Cannabis cultivation in Scotland is now established to the extent that Scotland is believed to be a net exporter of the drug to other parts of the UK and beyond."

Sheriff Michael Fletcher granted the Crown permission to hold on to money - £1641 and 1000 Hong Kong dollars - found in a car belonging to Wan and his wife Mo Qi.

Lawyers for the Scottish Government claimed the couple were members of the 14K Triad gang.

Wan, who is serving two years for assault to injury and permanent impairment, said he and his wife had low-paid jobs in a takeaway restaurant.

The action stated: "He is believed to be a member of the 14K Triad.

"It is believed they acquired property in Motherwell and serviced the mortgage payments through their involvement in organised criminality and through cannabis cultivation and supply."

Cannabis farms in Scotland have flourished. Police busted just 16 sites in 2006 but 89 in 2009 and 48 last year.

Figures from the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency show police have seized £41million worth of cannabis plants since 2006 and arrested 319 people.

Cannabis trial expert witness and former policeman Allen Morgan said: "It is cheaper for the gang bosses to rent commercial or private property in Glasgow or Edinburgh than it is to try and do the same in central London."

Chief Superintendent David O'Connor, president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, said: "The fact that Scotland is now a net exporter of cannabis is an extremely worrying development.

"Cannabis farms are not a wholly urban phenomenon and we are seeing more of them in rural areas. These organised crime groups think globally and policing is now a national and an international matter."

According to Interpol, the biggest cannabis exporters include Nigeria, South Africa, Canada, Colombia, Jamaica, Mexico, India, Thailand, Morocco and Afghanistan.

A Chinese dope farmer was caught after his flat was flooded.

Firefighters who broke down the door to discover the source of the leak were stunned to discover £51,000 worth of dope plants.

Man Cheung, 47, of Maryhill, Glasgow, admitted running the farm in Spruce Road, Cumbernauld, near Glasgow, in May 2009.

Cheung was jailed for two years at Airdrie Sheriff Court last week.

*Cops find crops worth £41m*

Police have busted more than 300 cannabis farms in Scotland in the last five years - seizing 138,453 plants worth approximately £41,535,900 on the streets.

More than half of the farms were in Strathclyde, where 188 farms were uncovered since 2006. In Lothian, police destroyed 54 farms during the same period. The figure was 19 in Grampian and 14 in Tayside.

The biggest factory spanned three floors in a quiet street in Ayr and had more than 3000 high-grade plants.

*hxxp://tinyurl.com/5v8qzhf*


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