A Sydney man accused of dumping garbage bags stuffed with 100 kilograms of cannabis at a Mitchell tip had alleged ties to an organised crime syndicate which ran an extensive grow house network uncovered in Canberra last year, a court has heard.
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Dac Lap Ho, 55, was charged after police received a tip-off from a member of the public who reportedly saw a man unloading 20 garbage bags, believed to contain cannabis, from a white van at Mitchell Resource Management Centre on August 27.
Court documents said police who went to the centre found the bags of drugs and later stopped a white van, driven by Ho, as he drove back into the recycling centre.
In a police interview, Ho said he worked in garbage disposal and had been instructed by an anonymous caller to use a hire car to drive to Canberra and get rid of a mystery haul of waste, court documents stated.
He told police he had rented two white vans and driven them to a Sydney street, as instructed by the caller, where he left them with the keys hidden in the wheel overnight before he returned in the morning to pick one of them up.
Ho allegedly noticed contents of plastic bags in the back of the van smelled like rotting meat, but he told police he hadn't looked inside before he set off for the ACT.
Court documents said Ho unloaded the bags before he drove to a street in Mitchell, where another man was waiting inside the second van, and had then returned to dump the second load of bags.
Ho allegedly said during the interview he had suspected "something wasn't right with the arrangement".
Police weighed the cannabis at 100 kilograms and allegedly found items including heat lamps, fertiliser and black pots filled with soil in the vans.
Ho was arrested and charged with possessing cannabis, being knowingly concerned with trafficking and cultivating cannabis, and destroying or concealing evidence.
He entered pleas of not guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
The prosecutor opposed Ho's bail application on grounds he was likely to destroy evidence and interfere with an ongoing police investigation, saying he was part of a criminal syndicate and a "cog in a much larger wheel".
A police informant said phone records showed Ho had been in contact with people who helped run a network of 13 cannabis grow houses police dismantled across the ACT last year.
The court heard Ho's fingerprints had also been found inside a NSW grow house where police seized more than 300 mature cannabis plants, however, no charges had been laid.
He had also been linked to a grow house police uncovered in Weston in September.
Defence lawyer John Overall questioned the strength of the case against Ho and said concerns he might pose a flight risk or interfere with the investigation could be mitigated by strict bail conditions.
Magistrate Maria Doogan said the allegations Ho had been caught "red-handed" with 100 kilograms of cannabis did not suggest a weak prosecution case.
She denied bail on grounds he would fail to appear in court or interfere with witnesses.
The matter will return to court in November.
