Waikato couple jailed after 460-plant cannabis grow found near courthouse, police station

A Vietnamese couple were sentenced to three years each after police uncovered a cannabis operation in a Huntly warehouse and a second grow site in Ngāruawāhia.

FILE — cultivation · Cannabis Tours / CC BY-SA 4.0

A husband and wife were sentenced to three years in prison each in Hamilton District Court after police found them tending a cannabis-growing operation in a warehouse near a district court and police station in the small Waikato town of Huntly, according to the NZ Herald.

The Discovery

Tu Ngoc Vu, his wife Hong Thi Vu, and a third defendant, Thanh Van Mai, were caught after staff at a neighbouring daycare noticed a strong odour coming from the William Street warehouse, the Herald reported. Police executing a search warrant found the trio working inside on July 4, 2024.

Scale of the Operation

Officers found 460 cannabis plants along with 41.5kg of already-harvested saleable dried bud and 103 bags of soil, according to the Herald. The 40m-by-20m warehouse had been altered in ways police said are typical of illegal grows — carpet and doors removed, windows boarded to block light, and ducting, filters and fans installed for ventilation, with power diverted to run artificial lighting and an irrigation system.

A second site at the trio's home on Duke Street in Ngāruawāhia held roughly 60kg of cannabis plants, packaged heads and growing equipment across a house and two sheds, one of which included a room made from a portable tent, the Herald reported. Police said it appeared some cannabis had been cleared from the property before it was searched. Cash was found on all three defendants, ranging from Mai's $3750 to Hong Vu's $5839.90 plus A$580.

The Sentencing

Mai was jailed for three years and nine months in May by Judge Arthur Tompkins, a sentence he is now appealing, according to the Herald. Crown prosecutor Lexie Glaser argued the Vus should be sentenced in line with Mai, saying they showed no remorse and had a "dismissive attitude," per the Herald's account of the hearing. Defence lawyer Callum Fredric argued the Vus had a lesser role, saying there was no evidence they did anything beyond growing and tending the plants, and pushed for a lower starting point.

Judge Tompkins ultimately found the couple were not principal players but had "significant" roles, telling the court it was "a significant operation with a high degree of premeditation," the Herald reported. He set a starting point of four years and three months before applying credits for guilty pleas and personal circumstances, arriving at three-year terms for each defendant. In an affidavit cited by the Herald, Tu Vu said he paid $40,000 to an agent to secure work in New Zealand, was scammed, and turned to cannabis labour out of financial desperation after arriving in 2023.

Broader Enforcement Pattern

The Huntly case follows a larger operation reported by Scoop in July, in which police shut down 14 cannabis grow houses across Rotorua under a joint Police–Immigration New Zealand investigation dubbed Operation Harvey. That operation, which Scoop said followed a six-month probe, resulted in 16 arrests — 14 of them Vietnamese nationals — and the seizure of more than 3,500 plants, with Detective Inspector Lindsay Pilbrow estimating a potential street value in excess of $6.5 million.

Our database's related coverage also lists a separate July matter involving an alleged medicinal cannabis licence breach in Christchurch, reported by RNZ, suggesting cannabis-related enforcement activity has featured repeatedly in New Zealand crime reporting this year. It is not established from the available material whether the Huntly and Rotorua operations were connected, though both involved Vietnamese nationals and residential or commercial properties converted for cultivation — a pattern police officials described in the Rotorua case as linked to organised criminal networks.

What to Watch

Mai's appeal against his three-year-nine-month sentence remains pending, according to the Herald, which could affect how comparable cases are weighed going forward. Fredric had argued for an even lower end point of two years and nine months for the Vus, a position the court did not adopt. Whether the Ngāruawāhia and Huntly sites are linked to wider organised networks, as alleged in the separate Rotorua case, has not been detailed in the reporting on the couple's sentencing.