Cannabis grower Bryan John Ling avoids jail sentence after gang crime squad raid on Elleker property

A cannabis grower has avoided prison after a gang crime squad raid uncovered 19 cannabis plants at his Elleker property. Officers from the specialist WA Police unit conducted a weekend blitz in Albany in May which included a raid on the home of 42-year-old Bryan John Ling. During the raid on his property on the morning of May 31, officers found 19 cannabis plants and more than 370g of the drug Police prosecutor Sgt Alan Dean told the Albany Magistrate’s Court on Thursday that 18 of the cannabis plants were hidden in a freight container and caravan. Another was found in Ling’s bedroom. Ling’s defence counsel Graeme Payne told the court his client was “open and honest” while being interviewed by police, when he confessed to owning the drugs and said he was supplying them to his girlfriend. A “very small margin” separated Ling from a prison sentence, according to Magistrate Raelene Johnston. He pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited drug with intent to supply and cultivating a prohibited plant with intent to supply. Ms Johnston told Ling her initial decision had been to hand him a suspended term of imprisonment. Instead, she placed him on a 12-month intensive supervision order. The fact Ling was supplying the drug, not selling it, and had no similar convictions on his record, contributed to Ms Johnston’s decision to spare him a prison sentence. The raid on his Elleker property was part of the gang crime squad’s Operation Distributor across regional WA, which yielded seized weapons, drugs, some $63,000 in cash, and vials of steroids. Using shock tactics, specialist gang crime squad officers stormed homes across Albany on May 30 and 31 in a series of early morning raids targeting the God’s Garbage gang. The Advertiser does not suggest Ling is associated with God’s Garbage. A home in Spencer Park was the first raided just after dawn on May 30. Wearing balaclavas and bulletproof vests, officers approached the property in single file, then smashed through the front door with a battering ram, giving those inside little chance to escape or tamper with potential evidence of criminal activity. After armed officers secured the occupants, detectives scoured the property, looking for illegal items and collecting intelligence on how God’s Garbage operates. The same process was carried out 20 minutes later at a home in Yakamia, where officers allegedly discovered cannabis plants. A patched member of the gang was led out of the house in handcuffs. That man, who is now going through the court system, accompanied officers on their next stop — God’s Garbage’s Milpara clubhouse. Head of the gang crime squad’s operations Det. Sen. Sgt John Mottolini said the “short, sharp” deployment to Albany yielded intelligence on the Great Southern’s criminal landscape.