AN ILLEGAL immigrant was jailed for nine months at Newport crown court yesterday for his involvement in a Cwmbran cannabis factory producing enough of the drug for 138,450 joints.

When Gwent Police raided the three-bedroom terrace house barely half a mile from police headquarters on March 23 they found it was given over to cultivating the drug.

Vietnamese Hung Cao, 35, was found sleeping in a room filled with 308 immature plants.

In total there were 625 plants under 94 strip lamps.

Analysis showed the plants would produce 35.10kg of cannabis resin, or 138,450 joints.

After seeing photographs, Judge David Morgan said: "I have never seen anything like this, it is a positive forest of cannabis."

Clare Wilks, prosecuting, described how the walls and floors of the house were screened off with plastic sheeting and a professional air-flow system installed.

Police are still hunting for the mastermind behind the factory, which was in a rented house.

The court heard how, speaking through an interpreter, Cao said he was told the plants were medicinal and asked to water them.

Richard Ace, defending, said Cao was not being paid and was staying at the house while he looked for work.

The court was told he arrived on the back of a lorry just two weeks before his arrest.

He gave a people smuggler £8,000 to come to Wales, half of which his mother funded with a loan. He planned to pay back money by working, then apply for asylum and bring over his wife and three-year-old daughter.

The court heard he lived in poverty in North Vietnam, working as a labourer since leaving school at 14, when his father died. Judge Morgan ordered the cannabis to be destroyed, but said the equipment should be kept in case any future prosecutions were brought.

He said Cao was "taken advantage of" and should now be deported as soon as possible.

He added: "I implore the secretary of state to act upon the recommendation I'm making under the 1971 Immigration Act as quickly as possible in fairness both to Cao and the community here."