Vietnamese crime boss toured eight farms in a Bentley Continental

The head of a Vietnamese crime gang posed as a wealthy property developer to run a network of farms staffed by illegal immigrants.

Roman Le, aged 38, drove a £225,000 Bentley Continental between the eight farms he supervised in the Midlands, northwest and north Lincolnshire.

Feng

Le rented the properties or bought them outright and had scaffolding put up around some of them to make it look as though they were being worked on.

Yihao Feng, 29, and David Qayumi, aged 36, helped him operate the properties.

One was the former ‘Big Bamboo’ nightclub in Coventry, which was raided by the NCA and West Midlands Police in October 2020.

Officers found more than 1,500 plants, worth more than £1 million being grown on three floors.

NCA surveillance officers had previously watched as Le visited the site, parking the Bentley outside the building.

Other locations included a former pub in Birmingham, and an old hotel in Lancashire.

The farms were capable of producing millions of pounds of the latest strains of powerful skunk weed every year.

Many of the farms were staffed by Vietnamese or Albanian illegal migrants, some of whom were likely being exploited because of their immigration status.

Qayumi posed as a businessman, working with Le to buy, rent or sub-let the properties.

Feng acted as an ‘operations manager’ for the group, making sure the factories kept working and that what was happening inside was kept a secret.

Le was arrested at his home, an apartment in Essex Street, Birmingham, on 4 November 2020, which he shared with his girlfriend.

Both Feng and Qayumi admitted 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 cultivation.

Le was convicted following an eight-day trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

Feng and Qayumi were handed prison sentences totalling six-and-a-half years on July 4.

Le was sentenced to six-years and two months today.

NCA Senior Investigating Officer Paul Boniface said: ‘The cannabis factories operated by Roman Le’s gang produced drugs worth millions, often staffed by migrants who had arrived here illegally and were being forced to work to pay off their debt to people smugglers.

‘He claimed to be a legitimate businessman, but in reality he was lining his own pockets off the back of the exploitation of others less fortunate than him.

Qayumi

‘Working with policing partners we were able to target and dismantle this organised criminal operation, and those involved are now rightfully behind bars.

‘Gangs like this are helping fuel an industry that sees people transported into the UK in life-threatening ways in boats or lorries, which is why taking action against them is so important for the NCA.’

The NCA investigation was supported by West Midlands Police, Lancashire Police, and Humberside Police who all added manpower and expertese in the operation to nail the crime gang.