Huu Nguyen, Hinh Thien Tran and Phillip Cimone appeared before Magistrate Michael Holmes this afternoon about 2.30pm to have their submissions for bail heard in the Inverell Local Court.

The matter was adjourned until January 24, 2013

Nguyen, Thien and Cimone were arrested by police on Sunday by New England rural crime investigators, Inverell detectives and New England Target Action Group officers who seized more than 1000 cannabis plants with a street value of more than $2 million that were growing on a property about 24 kilometres southwest of Bundarra.

The men had appeared briefly in court this morning.

An interpreter was in court for Nguyen and Thien and there was some initial confusion about who was representing the individuals, with Matthew Campbell from Proctor and Associates in Parramatta appearing for at least two of the accused.

Prior to the three appearing briefly before Magistrate Holmes he asked court officials what the difficulty was with lawyers not being able to take instructions from their clients.

“What is the problem with access to the cells this morning? It is starting to cause a bit of a log jam,” he said.

Solicitor John Watts explained other solicitors did not have access to the cells because one solicitor was still taking instructions from his clients.

The three men were brought into the courtroom shortly afterwards and Magistrate Holmes reminded Mr Campbell of expected procedure.

“You are not in the city, we’re in the country. Instructions need to be taken as quickly as possible,” he told Mr Campbell.

The matter has been stood over until 2pm.

A three-day police operation wrapped up on a property at Baldersleigh Rd, Bundarra on Tuesday with officers seizing 1000 cannabis plants, no more than 20cm in height, along with fertiliser, pots and irrigation equipment.

The operation began on Sunday, when officers received information about the suspected crop.

When they arrived, they found and arrested three men at the plantation site.

Police said the seized plants would have an estimated street value of $2 million.

Acting New England Local Area Commander Rowan O’Brien told Fairfax police will allege the men intended to increase their plantation with 4000 empty pots also found at the scene.

He said the cleared area could have also accommodated an additional 4000 plants as well.

“In that area that was found fenced off, you could certainly suggest they (the arrested men) had plans for further cultivation of cannabis,” he said. “It looks like a well-funded, large-scale bush cannabis plantation site.”

Acting Superintendent O’Brien said the men, aged 58, 32 and 19 years, were charged with cultivating a large commercial quantity of cannabis.

The offence carried a maximum jail term of 20 years.

“Certainly due to the early detection of this site we’ve prevented an even larger scale operation being conducted,” Acting Superintendent O’Brien said. “Hopefully this is a message to people that would be considering coming up to the New England area to participate in this type of organised crime, is that the chances of detection even in remote areas is highly likely.”

Detectives from the New England Local Area Command led the investigation.