Australian million-dollar weed farm was to fund anti-abortion campaign, court hears

MELBOURNE, Australia – A man who was found with 6.5 tons of harvested marijuana and 22,000 cannabis plants at his remote grazing property in southeastern Queensland has pleaded guilty to trafficking a dangerous drug.

Michael Bennett Gardner Sr. first appeared in Brisbane's Supreme Court on Wednesday where he pleaded not guilty to trafficking between 2004 and 2008, the Australian Associated Press reports, but on Thursday he changed his plea to guilty so he could explain his reasons for growing the drug.

According to the news agency, Gardner had claimed before the trial that he was trying to raise millions of dollars to saturate the media with anti-abortion messages. He said that the deaths of unborn children were "an act of treason" and "an extraordinary emergency," and argued that his actions were aimed at saving lives and were excusable under law, the article says.

The judge reportedly disagreed, ruling that his anti-abortion stance was not a permissible defense.

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The local Warwick Daily News says that the discovery of the drugs, which have a wholesale value of over $72 million US dollars ($69 million Australian dollars), near Inglewood in 2008 was one of the biggest drug busts in Queensland history.   The crops were planted over four years, and would eventually have been worth $520 million USD ($500 million AUD).

It tells how Gardner made his wife and her three young children tend to the acres of marijuana.  He allegedly prevented the children from attending school, and torturing and killing their pets to frighten them into to keeping quiet.

Having changed his plea, Gardner will be sentenced on April 3, the Courier Mail says.