24/10/2007 00:00:00
UK: Men Jailed for Setting up Drugs Factory
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Three men involved in a cannabis factory have each been jailed.
The enterprise, based in a rented warehouse in Wood Street, Belgrave,
was discovered after an alarm bell alerted the police to a flood on the
premises.
Firemen found a well-equipped "moderately sophisticated" cannabis
growing operation with 160 flowering plants.
These could have yielded about 7.73 kilos of the class C drug, worth
many of thousands of pounds.
Just over a kilo of cannabis bush was also seized from a drying area,
Malcolm Wilson, prosecuting, told Leicester Crown Court.
The prime mover, Mark Holyland, (32), was jailed for four years
yesterday. He set up the factory when his legitimate business collapsed,
leaving him in massive debt and also owing his parents £140,000.
When police raided his former home at Valley Farm, in Ashby, they found
more cannabis growing in his garage.
Holyland, a father-of-two, recruited his friend Jason Thompson, (33), to
run the factory.
Police saw Thompson acting suspiciously near the scene and a search of
his home in Beardsley Road, Quorn, found he was also growing cannabis in
his garage.
Thompson was jailed for three years.
Co-accused Toby Morrison (32), a finance company owner, of Main Street,
Peckleton, helped Holyland to lease the Wood Street premises. He was
jailed for two years.
All three admitted involvement in cultivating the drug in August, last year.
Holyland, of Staples Drive, Coalville, also admitted possessing a CS
canister, which he had bought in America 10 years ago.
It was found during the police search in a cupboard and unrelated to the
drugs offences.
In mitigation, the court heard none of the defendants had previously
been in trouble and they regretted their involvement.
It was the first attempt to grow a crop. No cannabis had been sold and
no profit made by the time they were arrested.
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=12933
Author:
Leicester Mercury via UKCIA
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