Suburban home cannabis factory
From the outside it appeared to be a normal suburban bungalow, with neatly manicured lawns and rose bushes in the garden behind a thick hedge.
But when armed police raided it early yesterday they found a sophisticated cannabis factory inside, with hundreds of plants being grown in bedrooms and out-buildings.
In a pre-planned operation, officers carried out a routine search warrant at the property on Marshland Rd in Ouruhia on the outskirts of Christchurch at about 8.15am.
Inside they uncovered a comprehensive cannabis operation, with heat lamps and ventilation systems set up to help grow around 200 plants.
The drugs were found in three areas of the property, including two sheds.
In one, cannabis was being grown in a tent, while in another there were lights, fans and dozens of mature plants.
Two bedrooms had been converted for use in the operation, plants growing at various stages in one and hung out on clothes racks to dry in the other.
Cannabis seedlings were being grown in a hallway cupboard, while what appeared to be fertiliser was found in a number of containers in the bath.
No one has yet been arrested, a police spokeswoman said.
The property’s landlord said it was being rented out, and he was unaware of the police search when contacted by The Press.
The raid came days after it emerged police had quietly shelved their annual cannabis eradication operation in a major change of policy that blind-sided frontline staff and the police minister.
For more than 20 years, officers have taken to the skies with the New Zealand Defence Force as part of a national operation to find back country cannabis plots.
However, top brass at Police National Headquarters, which provides more than $700,000 a year to fund hundreds of hours of flight time for helicopters and planes used in the operation, have decided to scrap it.
One of the reasons for grounding the operation was a lack of appetite from the leaders of the 12 police districts, despite it netting tens of thousands of plants every year.
Police previously also said the operation helped prevent hundreds of millions of dollars worth of socio-economic harm.