Wealthy restaurant boss ran major Midland drugs ring
Nov 11 2009 by Justine Halifax, Birmingham Mail
A WEALTHY restaurant owner who controlled a major Midlands drugs supply ring has been convicted of conspiracy to produce cannabis.
Qi Xing Weng was arrested as part of an investigation by Staffordshire Police’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit into the large-scale production of cannabis following the discovery of numerous cannabis factories in Stoke-on-Trent.
Operation Nemesis, the force’s ongoing crackdown on drug dealers, revealed that the 29-year-old was behind one of the region’s biggest cannabis factories in Ward End, Birmingham, where 1,400 plants were recovered in a police raid in March 2008.
It is estimated that the building, a former Benefits Agency Office, had at one time, housed between 6,000 and 10,000 plants, with a street value of more than £1 million.
In May 2008, Staffordshire Police, with the help of West Mercia Police and the Immigration and Borders Agency, searched Weng’s home in Dale End Court, Ironbridge, and Chinese and Thai restaurants, then owned by Weng, in Stafford, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford, Ironbridge and Shrewsbury.
A bin liner with £170,000 in cash was found hidden in loft insulation at Weng’s house. Further amounts of cash were found, including £23,000 at the Ironbridge restaurant.
Detectives also found a cannabis factory in its early stages, with 200 seedlings, at a house in Lower Ford Street, Coventry. Weng’s fingerprints were on the tenancy agreement.
Following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court, Weng was convicted of conspiracy to produce cannabis, concealing criminal property and possessing cannabis. He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on December 11.
Mohammed Nawaz, aged 60, from North Acton, London, who oversaw the Ward End cannabis factory, was convicted of conspiracy to produce cannabis and was also remanded in custody to be sentenced on the same date.
Jasprit Rihal, aged 35, of North Street, Coventry, was found not guilty of conspiracy to produce cannabis and money laundering.
Det Sgt Dave Hughes, from Staffordshire Police’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said: “A separate hearing will be heard in the near future to order the removal of the assets of those convicted today.”
