AN ILLEGAL immigrant helped set up East Lancashire's biggest cann-abis factory after being sent to flood the area with drugs by a Vietnamese criminal gang.

Police said that Viet Dinh, 27, was part of a "sophisticated and organised" group after he pleaded guilty to helping run the drugs farm in Mary Street, Burnley, near Turf Moor.

Burnley Crown Court was told that drugs at the 1,200-plant factory were worth £250,000.

Recorder Philip Butler told Dinh to expect to be sent to jail.

But the court heard he had already been served with deportation papers and the sentencing judge could make an order he be deported either immediately or at the end of his sentence.

After the case, police said that Dinh had been sent to the area by a Vietnamese criminal gang intent on flooding the area with drugs.

Det Sgt Simon Brooksbank, of Burnley Police's Intelligence Unit, said: "We can say that this man was part of a sophisticated and organised criminal gang set up to grow and distribute cannabis in East Lancashire.

"This factory is one of a number which have been discovered in East Lancashire but this arrest seems to have sent out a message and disrupted this activity in the area, which has reached epidemic proportions elsewhere."

Dinh, 27, admitted being concerned in producing cannabis betwen March 1 and 27.

Dinh's fingerprints were found on the haul and others were involved. One set of prints belonged to a man subject to proceedings for similar allegations at Preston Crown Court, the Burnley court was told.

Another illegal immigrant, Long Chu, of New Inn Road, Birmingham, was found not guilty of the charge after the crown offered no evidence.

Chu, who has earlier claimed he was 15 but was deemed by Burnley magistrates to be 18 or over, was returned to Lancaster Farms Young Offenders' Institution where he has been on remand, to be detained awaiting interview by immigration officials.

John O' Shea, prosecuting, told the court only two sets of Chu's fingerprints were found.

One in the car he had travelled to the premises in and another on a cup.

There were no prints on the cannabis plants and it could not be proved he played a part in the drug cultivation, the court was told.

Chu had only arrived in this country five days before.

Dinh was remanded in custody until October 25, for a pre-sentence report.

Recorder Philip Butler told Dinh: "You must understand that the fact that I have asked for a report must not give you any false hope of any particular type of sentence.

"The offence is so serious that its plainly the case that a prison sentence is the starting point." When police discovered the cannabis factory, they found an extensive system of UV light and heaters worth around £10,000.

Police executed a search warrant on the six-bedroomed former lodging house after gathering evidence of suspicious activity with the help of tip-offs from local residents.

The whole first floor of the property, which comprises of three terraced houses knocked into one, was devoted to cannabis production, police said.