$5.5 million worth of cannabis charges dropped against clients; Vietnamese Crime and Drug Syndicates

In March of 2019, four alleged drug kingpins were arrested as part of Operation Papa Cider, which was established to target Vietnamese crime and drug syndicates. An additional three farmhands were arrested at the cannabis farm.

Alan Phillips was approached to act for three of the alleged kingpins. The charges were in relation to $5.5 million worth of dried cannabis and plants located at a property near Warwick in Queensland. There were 1825 cannabis plants located at the farm, along with 139 kg of dried cannabis worth $918,000. A review of the brief of evidence by Alan Phillips and Nick Crawford showed that their was a lack of evidence to link our clients with the farm. The defence case was that our clients had nothing to do with the cannabis farm and were wrongly accused.

Following the committal of the matter, discussions were had with the Director of Public Prosecutions who, after hearing submissions by defence, elected not to proceed against our three clients and all charges were dropped.

Additional details in relation this matter can be located on the below hyperlink. 

Vietnamese caught up in $5m Qld drug bust - 9News