A man built a secret bunker beneath his Adelaide property, then died – leaving questions unanswered over the manhole’s purpose, after his death forced police to “reassess” a drug investigation linked to the property.
On July 1, the Environment, Resources and Development Court ruled Nguyen Tuong Quang Ngo had breached planning rules by building an unapproved bunker beneath a shed on his Woodville Gardens property.
Mr Ngo, who had terminal stage-four cancer, sadly passed away the next day, on July 2.
The former handyman was a father to adult children and a two-year-old daughter, now cared for by an ex-partner.
In 2011, the ABC reported Mr Ngo was jailed for trafficking heroin and he was the younger brother of Jean “Frenchie” Ngo, one of the men who murdered Adelaide man Paulo Miranda in 2008.
In court this month, Senior Judge Michael Durrant said Port Adelaide Enfield Council officers had searched Mr Ngo’s property along with SA Police officers in July 2025.
“Authorised officers of the council observed that there was a bunker structure constructed underneath the floor of the shed,” Judge Durrant said.
Asked by The Advertiser why police searched the property, a police spokeswoman said two individuals were “charged with various drug-related offences in connection with this matter”.
“Following the death of one of the accused, SAPOL is currently reassessing the matter and is therefore unable to comment on the operational aspects of the investigation,” she said.
Judge Durrant said in ordinary circumstances, he would have fined Mr Ngo $20,000 for building an unapproved bunker and multiple other planning-related offences – which were separate to the drug-related charges laid by police.
However, the judge said he would not impose a fine because Mr Ngo – who was undergoing end-of-life care and only receiving income from a disability pension – lacked “the financial capacity to pay”.
Mr Ngo was ordered only to pay the council’s legal costs of $4030.
Asked by The Advertiser whether the council would pursue the costs from Mr Ngo’s estate, a Port Adelaide Enfield Council spokeswoman claimed it would not be appropriate to answer.
The court was told the underground bunker was about 6m in length, 5m in width and 2.1 metres in depth.
In addition to an offence relating to the bunker’s construction, Judge Durrant also convicted Mr Ngo of four more offences, including one related to building a shed larger than allowed under a council-approved design.
A man at the Woodville Gardens house last week told The Advertiser he would soon tear down the shed, as he cleared out the property to fulfil a promise made to Mr Ngo.
The man said the bunker hole had now been filled in with concrete.
He said he had been a friend of Mr Ngo, who was the type of person always “doing his own thing”.