Telford drug gang leader to pay back just £6,100 of his £750,000 profits
A Vietnamese man living in Telford who exploited a network of illegal immigrants to grow cannabis across the country has been ordered to pay back just £6,100 of his estimated £750,000 ill-gotten gains.
Toi Van Le played a leading role in a nationwide drug-growing scheme for over 10 years, and was locked up in 2016 after the operation was smashed by police.
He and others controlled Vietnamese immigrants in towns and cities across England and Wales to grow potentially millions of pounds worth of cannabis.
This week in a hearing at Shrewsbury Crown Court prosecutors sought to recover Van Le's profits, which they said total more than £750,000.
A judge has now ordered him to pay £6,100 which will come from a bank account of his and an Audi that was valued at £2,000.
If he does not pay the full amount by July 17 this year, he will have to serve a default three-month jail sentence in lieu of the amount owed.
A report prepared by David Andrews of West Mercia Police said police had discovered drugs worth £14,250 which added to a benefit figure of £769,509.55.
Prosecuting barrister Rob Pryce asked Steve Myers, a financial investigator at West Mercia Police's economic crime unit, if the report was "fair and reasonable".
Mr Myers agreed with the calculations.
Chain of command
Handing down the order was Judge Peter Barrie, who in 2016 sentenced Van Le to 11 years and 10 months for his crimes.
He said: "Toi Van Le was convicted of serious offences to do with cultivation of cannabis.
"The scale of the operation was such that the benefit figure before me is in the region of three quarters of a million pounds."
Van Le had been involved in cannabis production at seven terraced houses in Telford, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham and Burton-on-Trent, a disused leisure centre in Newport, South Wales, an empty bank in Grimsby and a former doctor's surgery in Cumbria, between January, 2006, and May of 2016.
He alongside others had been described as at the top of the chain of command in the operation.
CCTV evidence and analysis of mobile phone and satellite navigation systems showed him moving around the relevant areas of the country.
Van Le, 54 and of Spout Way in Malinslee, Telford, who also had addresses in Birmingham and London, had previously admitted one conspiracy charge relating to a house in the Stoke-on-Trent area.
Van Le was represented by Trevor Meegan but did not attend the hearing this week because he was not transferred correctly by the prison service, which Judge Barrie described as "a matter of great frustration and regret".
Whether he will be allowed to stay in the country after completing his sentence remains unclear.
