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– The police thought we were family, says the 42-year-old.
On Thursday of last week, he was arrested and charged with a felony drug offense after a large cannabis plantation was found next door.
Chau believes that he was arrested due to a name confusion and because he has the same ethnic origin as the other two defendants in the case.
– I was surprised when they arrested me, because I have not done anything. I am one hundred percent innocent, he tells NRK.
On Monday, Chau was released after two days in solitary confinement and two days in custody.
Suspicion against him has weakened.
This is stated by police lawyer Berit Woxen. She does not want to comment on the basis of Chau’s arrest and incarceration.
He is still charged with complicity in a drug crime.
Goodbye in front of the house next door where a large cannabis plantation was revealed on Thursday of last week.
Photograph: Per-Kåre Sandbakk / NRK
– I felt distrust
NRK meets Chau at her house in the single family home in Bjelland. She has lived here for almost two years.
A little over a hundred meters further on is the house where the police found large quantities of cannabis plants. There must have been plants on all three floors of the house.
When police acted on the house next door Thursday, Chau took over the garden, he says.
According to the 42-year-old man, a police car suddenly entered the yard. He says they asked him his name and asked for identification.
– I asked if he had done something criminal. They did not respond, explains Chau.
He says they then went next door. Several police cars arrived and two from the house next door were arrested.
Chau says he was arrested immediately after.
They handcuffed him and told him he had to go to the police station.
– I felt they distrusted me immediately.
Police forensic scientists confiscated many bags of cannabis plants from the house. There must have been plants on all three floors of the single-family home.
Photograph: Madeleine Mellemstrand / NRK
I’ve met the neighbors once
What did the police explain to you?
– They said that I was the neighbor and that they suspect that we are family and couple.
When asked if he has met the neighbors, who live on the hash plantation, he says that he has only met one of them once.
Then he must have happened to deliver an electricity bill that had ended up in the wrong mailbox.
Chau was taken to the Kristiansand Police Station. There he spent two days in an isolation cell before being detained for two days in Mandal Prison.
Prosecutor Berit Woxen does not want to comment on the background to Chau’s arrest.
Photo: Geir Ingar Egeland / NRK
Previously convicted
The 42-year-old admits that he has used drugs himself and has been convicted of it before.
NRK has seen one of these lawsuits.
– I have done bad things, but after moving here I have become acute. I’ve never done anything bad enough to be in prison for several years, he says.
He says he moved to Bjelland to enjoy the peace, quiet, and beautiful nature. He wanted to get away from the eastern Norwegian city where he previously lived.
The cannabis plantation in Bjelland was hidden inside a remote single-family home.
Photo: Geir Ingar Egeland / NRK
Two defendants in custody
The other two defendants, a 29-year-old man and a 41-year-old man, remain in total isolation.
From what NRK knows, the case probably has ramifications for eastern Norway.
Chau is convinced that he was arrested because he has the same nationality as those associated with the cannabis plantation.
What do you think of the fact that there has been a cannabis plantation next door?
– I think it’s bad because I don’t want any crime in the area where I live. And then I think it’s silly to get involved in this.
