MAN TO FACE TRIAL FOR DRUG FARMING

A Queensland man, charged over a South Coast cannabis-growing operation
worth more than $2.5 million, has been committed to stand trial in
Wollongong District Court.

Robert John Wilkinson, of Victoria St, Cardwell, appeared before Magistrate
David O'Connor in Moruya Local Court yesterday charged with cultivating 955
cannabis plants and supplying 34kg of cannabis leaf.

The 44-year-old pleaded guilty to the cultivation charge but denied
supplying the cannabis leaf.

Both matters were stood over to Wollongong District Court on July 21. Bail
was refused.

At an earlier hearing, police prosecutor Richard Strong tendered facts
alleging Wilkinson and a co-offender rented a house in Runnyford Rd,
Nelligen, and organised and participated in hydroponically growing cannabis
seedlings at the house.

It was further alleged Wilkinson searched areas of bushland in the Clyde
State Forest before choosing two sites for the drug plantations. The men
then moved fertiliser and irrigation equipment to the isolated areas before
allegedly planting the cannabis seedlings.

Wilkinson is also alleged to have arranged for a co-offender to travel from
Townsville to guard and tend the cannabis crops, and to have employed two
other men for the same purpose.