Kids 'used as slave labour for drug crop'
The man behind a $69 million cannabis crop used his stepchildren as slave labour for the enterprise, a court has been told.
Michael Bennett Gardner Sr forced the teenage children to sow and weed thousands of plants when they should have been at school, and beat them to make them work harder, the Supreme Court in Brisbane heard on Wednesday.
He also tortured and killed their pets to demonstrate what would happen to them if they told anybody about their work, the court heard.
Gardner, 57, who allegedly wore a "hippie" costume and wig to deliver drugs to Nimbin, has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking between 2004 and 2008.
He is defending himself at his trial.
During his opening, prosecutor Michael Lehane said police raided Gardner's 5500-acre (2225.77ha) property at Inglewood, in southeast Queensland, in mid-2008 to find evidence of a huge ongoing cannabis enterprise.
He told the court police found 22,000 plants in the ground and several tonnes of the harvested drug drying in a number of sheds.
The cannabis was estimated to have a value of $69 million.
Mr Lehane said 8km of irrigation piping had been installed and there was a large cache of weaponry including guns, night-vision goggles and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition.
He said the jury would hear a "vast amount of evidence" that Gardner was the "guiding mind of this illegal enterprise".
He said five members of Gardner's family - including his former wife, son and three stepchildren - would give evidence he set up the business and used threats to force them to work in it.
They would also give evidence that he had two of his young children carry thousands of dollars in their shoes when walking through Nimbin.
Mr Lehane said it was also alleged Gardner tried to continue selling drugs that had already been moved off the property while he was in prison following his arrest.
The trial is set down for three weeks.
Michael Bennett Gardner Sr forced the teenage children to sow and weed thousands of plants when they should have been at school, and beat them to make them work harder, the Supreme Court in Brisbane heard on Wednesday.
He also tortured and killed their pets to demonstrate what would happen to them if they told anybody about their work, the court heard.
Gardner, 57, who allegedly wore a "hippie" costume and wig to deliver drugs to Nimbin, has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking between 2004 and 2008.
He is defending himself at his trial.
During his opening, prosecutor Michael Lehane said police raided Gardner's 5500-acre (2225.77ha) property at Inglewood, in southeast Queensland, in mid-2008 to find evidence of a huge ongoing cannabis enterprise.
He told the court police found 22,000 plants in the ground and several tonnes of the harvested drug drying in a number of sheds.
The cannabis was estimated to have a value of $69 million.
Mr Lehane said 8km of irrigation piping had been installed and there was a large cache of weaponry including guns, night-vision goggles and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition.
He said the jury would hear a "vast amount of evidence" that Gardner was the "guiding mind of this illegal enterprise".
He said five members of Gardner's family - including his former wife, son and three stepchildren - would give evidence he set up the business and used threats to force them to work in it.
They would also give evidence that he had two of his young children carry thousands of dollars in their shoes when walking through Nimbin.
Mr Lehane said it was also alleged Gardner tried to continue selling drugs that had already been moved off the property while he was in prison following his arrest.
The trial is set down for three weeks.
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