Lithuanian men appear in court after four cannabis factories discovered
The Organised Crime Branch recovered a quantity of suspected cannabis from a property in Tandragee on Wednesday (PSNI/PA)
A wide-spread police surveillance operation resulted in five Lithuanian men appearing in court today charged in relation to a number of cannabis factories.
While all five appeared at Ballymena Magistrates Court, the charges disclose the growing operations were as far apart as Coleraine and Banbridge and the court heard the police were trawling through the defendants' mobile phones in an effort to identify further cannabis factories.
The five defendants and their charges are:
Ftasys Matevicius, who turns 38 today, from Castleton in Templepatrick - cultivating cannabis, dishonestly using electricity and entering the UK illegally;
Nerikus Navickas, 41, Cairnhill in Coleraine - cultivating cannabis and dishonestly using electricity;
Radas Vitkus, 43, Collingwood Avenue in Lurgan - cultivating cannabis, possessing Class B cannabis with intent to supply and entering the UK illegally;
Paulius Micavicius, 33, Richmond Court in Newry - cultivating cannabis, dishonestly using electricity, conspiring to supply cannabis and conspiring to cultivate cannabis, all at Market Street in Tandragee;
Mindaugas Syvokas, 34, Richmond Court in Newry - conspiring to cultivate cannabis at Market Street, Tandragee and conspiring to supply the Class B drug, cultivating cannabis at Seapatrick Avenue in Banbridge, dishonestly using electricity and causing criminal damage.
While Matevicius and Navickas appeared in the dock, the other three appeared by video link from police custody and speaking through an interpreter, each of the men confirmed they understood the charges.
Only Syvokas mounted an application for bail so accordingly District Judge Nigel Broderick remanded the other four into custody, adjourning their cases to Antrim, Coleraine and Craigavon Magistrates Courts respectively.
Giving evidence to the court, a detective constable outlined how a police operation on 13 August, resulted in police searches at five different addresses in NI and uncovering four cannabis cultivation operations.
The court how the raids were the culmination of four months of police surveillance.
He described how the raids resulted in officers discovering more than 400 matures plants as well as 250 seedlings and that overall, police estimate the maximum street value of the hauls is £500,000.
'At three locations there were Lithuanian nationals who, on appearance, were gardeners,' said the detective.
He added however, that due to evidence and police surveillance, investigators believe that Syvokas 'is part of an Organised Crime Gang involved in the cultivation of cannabis with this defendant involved at a logistical level.'
The officer said while he could not divulge many aspects of the investigation, he outlined how officers recorded Syvokas at the growing operations in Templepatrick and Coleraine, driving vehicles to and from grow houses, parked in a vehicle at a store which sells hydroponic equipment and driving with his co-accused.
The court heard that while exhibits from the recent seizures have been sent for examination, police forensics hit two 'fingerprint hits' for Syvokas on items seized in a cultivation operation in Banbridge last February.
Objecting to bail, the detective said police had concerns that as part of an OCG, Syvokas could flee the jurisdiction and also that as police strive to identify further growing operations, his release could interfere with the investigation by alerting others who are involved or disposing of evidence.
Under cross examination from defence counsel Neil Moore, the officer conceded that while it is a circumstantial case at the moment, police are awaiting forensic results.
Highlighting that 'there is nothing to link him to the growing rooms' which were upstairs in all but one of the properties, the barrister submitted that bail conditions could be put in place so that Syvokas could be granted bail.
District Judge Nigel Broderick said however, that he was concerned on all three statutory grounds in that there was risk further offending, a risk of absconding and a risk to the investigation being obstructed.
Bail was refused and Syvokas was remanded into custody to appear at Craigavon court on 5 September.
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