Four Chinese men have been jailed for four years for their involvement in a sophisticated cannabis grow house.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the men were living in a warehouse in Ballyboughal, Richardstown, Co Dublin, and looked after roughly 1,500 cannabis plants.
Guoyong Lin (35), En Xing Weng (38), Ming Liu (30) and Hua Ping Lin (27), all of whom are of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis at the warehouse on February 7th this year.
Garda Declan Fitzgerald described the operation as “significant” and “professional”. The court heard that the men had been hired by a significant Chinese gang operating in Ireland, and only stood to earn a small amount of money for looking after the plants.
Judge Martin Nolan said it was impossible not to feel “a certain degree of sorrow for these men”.