How Vietnamese drug kingpins run Britain’s lucrative marijuana trade worth US$3.2 billion a year
- Thousands of migrants are tricked and trafficked to work for Vietnamese bosses who have become major players in the UK weed game
- Police have busted cannabis farms in dog kennels, pubs, an abandoned hospital and even a former nuclear bunker – many run by Vietnamese
Holed up alone in a suburban British house thousands of miles from home, cannabis farmer Cuong Nguyen spent months carefully nurturing his plants, one of thousands of Vietnamese migrants working in the UK’s multibillion-dollar weed industry.
Cuong – who is now 41 – slipped into Britain illegally, hidden under a lorry before going on to grow cannabis in homes, hotels and even a stable. His dangerous journey from the poor, rough Vietnamese port town of Haiphong to Britain’s illegal cannabis farms was driven by big dreams.
“All I ever wanted was to make money … whether it was legal or illegal,” says Cuong, who is now back in Vietnam.
Cuong claims he went to the UK willingly, looking for ready cash in a country with some of the highest weed prices anywhere in Europe. But many others – including children – are tricked and trafficked to work for the shadowy Vietnamese drug bosses who have become the unlikely kingpins of the UK weed game.
The story of the self-professed hustler and low-level crook offers a unique insight into the routes taken by some Vietnamese migrants. But it also turns a spotlight on the margins in Vietnam, where criminal gangs trade on poverty and lack of opportunities to recruit new foot soldiers.
