6:50am Wednesday 10th March 2010
By Hayley Court
A SEA of green was the first thing police saw as they burst in to Swindon’s biggest cannabis factory.
The drug farm, tucked away in the former West Bromwich Bank on the corner of Morley Street and Commercial Road, was bursting with almost 2,000 plants – from the tiniest shoots to those ready for harvest.
A crowd of shoppers whipped out digital cameras and mobile phones to record the moments when nine police officers and three council binmen formed a chain gang to deposit the haul in the back of a lorry.
Sgt Kate Stalder, leading yesterday’s operation, said: “This is certainly the largest haul I have ever seen.
“Judging by the plants I’d say that we got here at just the right time. There are quite a few here ready for harvesting so much longer and we could have been looking at tens of thousands of pounds of cannabis on the streets of Swindon.”
Sgt Stalder calculated that 1,000 plants would be equal to 72 kilograms (158.7lbs) with a street value of £250,000.
Police first raided the premises on Monday after being alerted by a power company that the use of electricity at the address was phenomenally high.
The police helicopter was scrambled and the roof showed up on their thermal imaging equipment as white with heat.
Two Vietnamese men, one 18 and one 20, were arrested in connection with cultivating the crop, which was separated into eight rooms across two floors.
Sgt Stalder said: “They had been living and sleeping in a block of toilets on the first floor of the building and were in the squalid room when police burst in.
“The set-up was very professionally executed.
“There were plants in all stages of growth. When the electricity company came in, it took them hours to make the building safe before we could start clearing.
“We had officers here throughout the night and went back in as soon as it was light to start clearing the plants.”
The plants were taken away by Swindon Council’s commercial services team to be destroyed.
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