It took a murder to find dope bunker
Police weren’t looking for cannabis. They were investigating a murder.
They already had one of the killers in custody when they searched a lifestyle property about 15 kilometres southwest of Rolleston in rural Canterbury.
Daniel French, 36, who in the weeks to come would be charged with murder, leased a shed at the back of the 10-hectare site. Police found an empty six-metre shipping container inside.
Inside that container, an officer noticed an unstable spot underfoot. He was standing on a trapdoor. When it was opened, the unmistakable smell of cannabis filled the container.
Stairs from the trapdoor led police to an elaborate cannabisgrowing operation that could produce about 3kg of dried product, worth about $30,000, every 12 weeks.
French was at the time establishing a pet shop in Rolleston and had an earthmoving business. Cannabis, however, was his real moneyspinner. He had built and operated the bunker.
French had been arrested a few days before the October 2018 search, along with Alistair Cochrane, 26, who was employed to do labour at French’s pet food business. They were arrested by police investigating the murder of King Cobra gang member Luke Sears.
Sears had been shot in front of his partner while trying to collect a debt he believed French owed the gang. Both men await sentencing.
As well as the containers, buried three metres underground, were two small underground rooms made of steel panels. A third container sat inside the shed above and it was here that a trapdoor, hidden by a fridge, provided access.
It was an intricate set-up. About 60 cannabis plants could be grown at a time, bathed under sodium lights set to operate between 4pm and 4am.
French had managed to bypass the power meter to steal an estimated $12,000 worth of electricity. The plants were watered manually, with water piped from an above-ground tank, while surplus water was pumped back to ground level.
Separate underground rooms were used as a seedling nursery and drying room with cannabis plants hung from coat hangers and string. Hot air was extracted through pipes and a wooden chimney.
French sold a large amount of the cannabis to Sears, the man he would later go on to kill.
French said he was owed thousands for the marijuana supplied to Sears, who was charged about $5600 per 500 grams of dried material. Initially, payments had gone smoothly but Sears later stopped paying despite getting the cannabis.
By early October 2018, tensions between French and Sears were high, with each of the men believing they were owed money. French thought Sears owed him $20,000 for cannabis he had provided, while Sears thought French was in debt to the King Cobras gang.
On October 12, Sears and French exchanged a series of heated text messages before Sears turned up at French’s pet shop with a pistol and punched him in the face.
The following day Sears and his partner, Wiona Lawson, visited French’s home hoping to collect the money, but he was not home. As they drove home down Grange Rd they passed French and Cochrane. The men leapt out of their cars and a fight ensued, with Cochrane brandishing a shotgun and eventually shooting Sears in the chest and shoulder.
The killers took off, leaving Sears dying on the roadside.
French went home and called the police while Cochrane, who initially went into hiding, handed himself into police four days later.
French and Cochrane were both found guilty of murder in March. They are due to be sentenced next month.