Man trafficked by ‘mafia’ to set up Bradford cannabis factory
Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC An illegal immigrant trafficked to Bradford by “mafia” to set up a £60,000 cannabis factory has been jailed for eight months. Dat Van Tran travelled from Vietnam to West Yorkshire hidden in the back of lorries because he believed Bradford was “a land of gold,” his lawyer said. Tran, 27, was on the run for more than four years and had begun a new life in Derbyshire with a wife and child when he was arrested in June this year, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday. He was convicted of being concerned in the production of cannabis in February 2008. Prosecutor John Bull said he was linked by fingerprint evidence on a fusebox and DNA on a cigarette stub to a cannabis factory at a house in Horton Grange Road. Police raided the four-bedroom terraced property after reports of a burglary and seized 429 cannabis plants from five rooms. Tran told the jury he paid to be smuggled into the UK by handing over his late pa