A MAN who had been on the run from police since one of last year's biggest drug busts in the Ballarat region, has appeared in Ballarat Magistrates Court this morning.
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Trang Van Nguyen, 26, was arrested by Ballarat police in the Melbourne suburb of Springvale last Saturday, having fled from arrest on September 3 last year when police uncovered commercial quantities of cannabis at a house in Alfredton.
At the time police arrested a female associate of Nguyen's, Sih-Yu Wu, 32, charging Wu with cultivating and trafficking commercial quantities of cannabis.
Police allege Wu was being paid up to $600 a day to provide "intimate relations" to Nguyen and that the pair had met while Wu was working as an illegal sex worker at a Melbourne brothel.
Nguyen is charged with multiple drug offences including cultivating and trafficking commercial quantities of cannabis.
A Vietnamese interpreter was used in court this morning to convey proceedings to Nguyen, who was seated in the dock of the court.
Nguyen made no application for bail and was remanded to re-appear in Ballarat Magistrates Court on June 4 for a committal mention hearing.
The brief of evidence against Nguyen is to be served on Victoria Legal Aid by May 14.
Wu will face a committal hearing later this month.