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The Wollongong co-owner of a popular Vietnamese bakery has admitted to a sideline in heroin dealing. Wollongong’s drug investigation unit formed Strike Force Lewes in mid-2015 to probe the drug activities of banh mi purveyor Cuong Thanh Nguyen, 36. From July, 2015, plain-clothes police posed as Nguyen’s customers and documented his sales of the drug. In Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday, Nguyen pleaded guilty to five drugs charges stemming from those encounters. He admitted to supplying the drug on four occasions between July and November at Dapto, Liverpool, Edenson Park and Wollongong. The quantities varied from 4.33 grams to 28.05 grams. He admitted to a fifth charge of dealing with cash suspected to be the proceeds of crime. Police have indicated they will seek a drug proceeds order requiring Nguyen to pay $27,900, “that being the total amount of money from which the accused received benefit as a result of supplying prohibited drugs to known persons during this operation”. Nguyen, co-owner of Crown Street’s Bakery Boys Cafe, was arrested at the business on November 11. At the time he was carrying 0.3 grams of heroin and $1525 in cash. A search of his Matthew Street, Wollongong apartment yielded another 4.3 grams of the drug. The matter returns to Wollongong District Court May 6.

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