22/09/2007 00:00:00
UK: Drugs Worth 100K are Seized in Swoop
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Police stormed a Vietnamese restaurant yesterday and stumbled on a
jungle of 800 cannabis plants.
It was the biggest haul of marijuana ever made in Cheltenham.
Behind the frosted window, officers found dozens of fully grown plants,
trays packed with seedlings, and special lighting to speed the growing
process.
The haul is thought to be worth as much as £100,000 on the streets.
Twelve officers raided the Thang Long restaurant in lower High Street,
which closed nine months ago.
They forced the front door at 8.30am and discovered the marijuana in six
basement rooms.
They confiscated stacks of hydroponics equipment, along with the plants
and seedlings.
Officers walked through the disused kitchen into a room full of pipes,
piles of plant pots and canes, and ceiling lights.
Off the main room were 3ft-high doorways covered with plastic sheeting.
Each room was packed with row upon row of plants at different stages of
growth, lit by overhead lamps. An underground room had three water
barrels providing a basic irrigation system of piped water.
Det Sgt Mark Pettit, who led the raid, said: "What we discovered was,
essentially, a cannabis factory. It was on a very large scale and
certainly the biggest enterprise of its kind that has been discovered in
the Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Division."
Malcolm Totterdale, who runs the Cut Price Store, said the restaurant
owner was a keen DIY fan. He added: "The restaurant didn't seem to
attract many people."
A man who works in a nearby shop said: "There was an enormous extension
for the restaurant, but no one could understand it because no one was
ever there."
A 31-year-old Cheltenham woman was arrested at the scene on suspicion of
cultivating an illegal drug.
After the raid, a man was arrested by South Wales Police.
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=12858
Author:
The Citizen via UKCIA
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