TWO men have been jailed after the police busted a huge £800,000 cannabis farm in a large industrial unit in Bradford.

The 1,370 plant grow on Nesfield Street, which runs between Manningham Lane and Midland Road, was protected by roller shutters and the electricity meter had been bypassed by interfering with the supply below street level.

Vietnamese nationals Phan Tuan and Nam Van were arrested from their bedrooms in an insulated structure in the building where 13 rooms had been created to house the plants, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday afternoon.

Tuan, 22, and Van, 41, both of no fixed address, at first claimed to be the victims of modern slavery.

However, they went on to plead guilty to production of cannabis.

Prosecutor Mehran Nassiri said that Van was locked up for 12 months in 2019 for production of cannabis.

Yesterday, Tuan was jailed for 31 months and Van was imprisoned for three years.

Mr Nassiri said the cannabis farm was at Nesfield Garage, a large industrial unit on a street of mainly business premises.

Both front doors had roller shutters and entrance had to be gained from the side of the building.

As well as the rooms containing plants, there was a drying area with hundreds of buds hanging up ready for packaging and distribution.

Both defendants had phones with them and Tuan had £105 in cash.

A large freezer contained joints of meat and there were many empty and full cans of lager at the scene.

Mr Nassiri said the men were not locked in and could leave if they wanted to.

The owner of the premises told the police he had rented it out to a man who hadn’t paid him.

The estimated yield of cannabis was 92.07 kilos, the court heard.

The crop had a street value of just short of £800,000.

Van told the police he had been trafficked since 2017.

After serving his earlier jail sentence he was kidnapped by the same gang and made to work at the farm.

Tuan, who had no previous convictions, said he was trafficked to a cannabis farm in Scotland and then taken with Van to the Bradford operation.

Both men said they owed money in Vietnam.

Tuan’s solicitor advocate, John Bottomley, said his client was sleeping on a mattress in squalor at the farm.

“He may not have been trafficked but he has been exploited,” he said.

Saf Salam, for Van, said he too had been exploited.

Recorder Anthony Kelbrick, said both men had played a role in “the huge professional enterprise.”

Van was jailed for longer because of his previous conviction.

In recent months, the Telegraph & Argus has reported on a large number of court cases involving people tending cannabis farms. Many of the defendants have been foreign nationals who told the courts they had been trafficked into the UK.