Police discovered the cannabis farm during a raid at a former workshop in Waterloo Road, near Ipswich town centre, on May 9 this year.
Inside the premises officers found cannabis plants in four growing areas of the premises and 37-year-old Hoang Hai, who had been living in rudimentary conditions, said Edward Renvoize, prosecuting.
He said the potential yield of the 705 plants, which included 466 mature plants, was 14 to 35kgs.
Following his arrest Hai told police he had come to the UK in a boat from France after his food business in Vietnam had failed.
While he was in a London he met a man from Vietnam who offered him food and brought him to Ipswich.
He was told to look after the cannabis plants and claimed he would be killed if he tried to escape.
Hai, of no fixed address, had denied production of cannabis but changed his plea to guilty in September – four days before he was due to go on trial at Ipswich Crown Court.
Joanne Eley, for Hai, who had the proceedings translated to him by a Vietnamese interpreter, said her client had been in the UK since 2023 and had no previous convictions.
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