Sutton woman jailed for her part in £700,000 drugs plot

Lien Thi Nguyen, aged 48, of Glen Street, was found guilty of conspiring to produce cannabis and conspiring to supply cannabis when she appeared in court, alongside four other gang members in February.

Returning to court for sentencing on May 9, Nguyen was jailed for three years.

Four other members of the gang were also jailed.

Hai Quoc Tran, aged 39, of no fixed address, was found guilty of conspiring to produce cannabis and conspiring to supply cannabis and was sentenced to four years and six months in jail.

Thi Hong Trang Nguyen, aged 38, of Blue Bell Hill Road, Nottingham, pleaded guilty to conspiring to produce class B drugs and was jailed for three years and six months.

Huy Quoc Tran, aged 37, of Honeywood Drive, Carlton, pleaded guilty to conspiring to produce cannabis and was jailed for 13 months.

Thuan Quoc Tran, aged 29, of Frederick Street, South Shields, also pleaded guilty to conspiring to produce cannabis and was jailed for three years and 13 months.

The gang first came to police attention during a routine traffic stop on January 26, 2023.

A silver Mercedes was seen driving erratically by police officers before it was stopped in West Bridgford.

The driver immediately fled on foot, leaving behind a 16-year-old girl who was suspected of being illegally trafficked into the UK.

Detectives had the car recovered and forensically examined in the weeks after the stop, and were later able to link lead conspirator Hai Quoc Tran to the car by fingerprints.

An intelligence-led investigation was commenced by officers at Nottinghamshire Police’s Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Team, which led to another vehicle of interest being stopped in the Redhill area of Nottingham in July 2023.

That car was also found to contain Hai Quoc Tran and accomplice Thi Hong Trang Nguyen.

Crucially, it was also carrying two mobile phones that were later found to contain evidence of large-scale drug dealing.

Alongside images of cannabis and bundles of cash, officers uncovered a treasure trove of evidence revealing the identities of other conspirators.

That evidence – supported by subsequent investigation work – helped to secure a series of co-ordinated search warrants at five addresses across Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire on 30 November 2023.

At one of those properties, in Honeywood Drive, Nottingham, eight large vacuum-packed bags of cannabis were found underneath a bed.

Other properties had been converted for the purpose of growing cannabis, and contained drugs worth more than £700,000.

Nearly £14,000 in cash was also seized, along with large quantities of designer handbags, sunglasses and belts.

Fake ID documents were also recovered.

Most of these items were seized at an address in Blue Bell Hill Road, Nottingham, where Hai Quoc Tran and Thi Hong Trang Nguyen were arrested and taken into custody.

Multiple suspects were later charged with offences, leading to the trial in February and subsequent sentencings.

The 16 year-old girl found in the back of the car in West Bridgford was later identified and remains in the UK.

DC Nicola Watson, of Nottinghamshire Police’s Modern slavery and Organised Immigration Crime Team, said: “What started out as a human trafficking investigation slowly morphed into a far larger drugs conspiracy.

“That one traffic stop led to us asking more and more questions and to uncovering more and more evidence until we had enough to conduct a number of co-ordinated warrants.

"At that point, our suspicions were confirmed and this conspiracy came crashing down around these offenders.”