Poker player in bid to clear his name over £2.25m drugs conviction
A former professional poker player jailed for running a cannabis growing operation across Northern Ireland worth up to £2.25m has launched a legal bid to clear his name.
Luong Bui, 49, is challenging convictions related to factories located at an industrial unit near Comber, Co Down and residential properties in Belfast and Coalisland, Co Tyrone.
Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan today listed the case for hearing at the Court of Appeal next month.
In 2017 police uncovered an illicit operation which involved a warehouse divided into 10 rooms split over two floors, with living quarters set up for those growing the plants.
Cannabis produced at the sites had a potential street value of between £750,000 and £2,250,000.
An estimated £35,000 worth of electricity had been illegally used to provide the necessary lighting and heating, while damage caused to the properties was put at £16,000.
Bui, originally from Vietnam but now a British citizen, was described as the “lynchpin” and “controlling mind” in an extraordinarily profitable network.
Each factory had been rented out by the 45-year-old and reconfigured to his exacting specifications.
A sham business supposedly supplying hydroponic and gardening equipment was used as a cover for his illegal operation, with £195,000 deposited in his bank account between August 2016 and November 2017 cited as a snapshot of the criminal earnings.
At one stage it was claimed that cash found at Bui’s home was winnings from playing high-stakes poker in London and Las Vegas.
Despite insisting he had been innocently duped and manipulated by others, the trial judge declared that he was the one “calling the shots” in strategic control of the operation.
Bui originally received a 15-year sentence for offences which included cultivating cannabis, abstracting electricity, assisting unlawful immigration, and attempting to pervert the court of justice after the factories were discovered.
In 2022 the Court of Appeal ruled that the jail term was manifestly excessive and reduced it to 13 years imprisonment.
He is now mounting a separate bid to have his convictions overturned, based on issues around the original trial process.
However, prosecutors may also seek a “loss of time” order which could ultimately lead to Bui serving a further period behind bars.
The appeal was allocated for a hearing on June 2