TWO illegal immigrants who helped operate sophisticated cannabis factories in houses in Suffolk have each been jailed for 28 months.

TWO illegal immigrants who helped operate sophisticated cannabis factories in houses in Suffolk have each been jailed for 28 months.

Sentencing the men in separate hearings at Ipswich Crown Court Recorder Martyn Levett commented on the growing number of cannabis factories being set up around the county and said deterrent sentences would need to be passed to discourage offenders.

Before the court yesterday were Binh Van Tran, 22, of The Street, Stonham Aspal and Vui Nguyen, 29 of Beatty Road, Ipswich who both admitted being involved in the production of cannabis.

Richard Kelly, prosecuting said police officers who executed a search warrant at a three-bedroom former council house in Beatty Road in May this year discovered 304 mature cannabis plants which would have yielded 87.5kgs of skunk with a street value of up to £500,000.

The living room of the rented property and the three bedrooms had all been converted and adapted for the cultivation of cannabis. Fertilisers and chemicals were also found in a bathroom and a handwritten note was found at the premises giving detailed instructions on how to care for the cannabis plants at each stage of the growth process.

Nguyen was arrested in the kitchen of the premises and told officers he had been paid £50 a week to tend the plants.

He was jailed for two years and four months less 88 days he has already spent in custody.

Mr Kelly said several weeks after the discovery of the cannabis factory in Beatty Road police officers executed another search warrant at a rented four-bedroom house in The Street, Stonham Aspal.

A total of 333 mature plants were found at the premises in four different rooms and there were signs in another room that there had been a recent cannabis harvest.

Jailing him for two years and four months Recorder Levett said the cannabis plants found at the house would probably have fetched £70- £80,000.

He accepted that Tran and Nguyen had both been employed to care for the cannabis plants and had not been involved in setting up the factories.