TWO Vietnamese men have been jailed for their part in running an enormous cannabis operation which netted more than £2million a year.

Phi Van Duong, 43, and Tap Van Duong, 30, were linked to 40 dope farms set up in houses and warehouses in Basildon and Southend, on Canvey and in London.

The prosecution claimed the drugs grown in the Essex factories alone could have amassed as £2.336million a year.

At Basildon Crown Court, Judge Christopher Mitchell jailed Phi Van Duong for nine years but Tap Van Duong for only six, after accepting he was the other man’s lieutenant and was linked to only nine of the sites.

He also recommended Tap Van Duong, an illegal immigrant, be deported at the end of his jail term.

The judge described the Duongs as “managers” and said while they were not at the top of the chain, they were higher up than the “gardeners” and “caretakers”, who tended the plants.

He added: “The scale of this operation was enormous.”

He added the size of the operation could be seen from the fact it paid £174,000 a year to rent properties in Essex.

This included £20,000 to rent Tylands Farm, Langdon Hills and £12,000 for a warehouse in Hedley Avenue, Purfleet.

At an earlier hearing John Caudle, prosecuting, told the court Phi Van Duong was in charge of the Essex and London arm of a UK-wide operation.

When he was arrested in October 2005, and his home in Rutland Avenue, Southend, was raided, police discovered a schedule of rents to be paid for the various properties, along with more than £35,000.

Phi Van Duong arrived in the UK from Vietnam as an illegal immigrant in 1986 and was detained, then granted indefinite leave to remain, An earlier attempt to prosecute him was dropped in 2006 when it look as if he might be deported.

But when he was released by the immigration authorities, he picked up where he had left off, with Tap Van Duong, of Newberry Side, Basildon, helping him.

Both defendants were arrested on November 11, 2007. When Phi Van Duong was interviewed, he claimed he worked as an interpreter for Vietnamese people looking to rent property.

Both admitted conspiracy to produce cannabis between January 2005 and November 2007.