Bingo hall cannabis factory that’s a stark picture of modern Britain
THE grand building was once a Regal cinema and then a bingo hall, before closing and being left derelict last year.
Now following the sad decline of the high street, the landmark in Kettering, Northamptonshire, has been turned into... a massive drugs factory.
Dispensing with the niceties of ‘number four, knock at the door’, 25 police officers and dogs stormed the building yesterday and found nearly £3million worth of cannabis plants.
Almost every inch of floor space inside the disused Gala bingo hall was taken up with the plants and the sophisticated hydroponic cultivation equipment used to grow them.
The raid happened after police became suspicious when officers smelt cannabis coming from the derelict building. Thermal imaging had also detected heat sources inside the building despite the fact that it was supposedly empty. Northamptonshire Police said the factory could have produced drugs worth about £2.8million a year.
The plants were only about three weeks away from harvest and distribution. The force said about 2,000 plants would be removed from the site after electrical equipment was made safe.
PC Colin Gray said: ‘This is a significant find that will disrupt organised crime groups and the distribution of cannabis locally and further afield. It is one of the largest I have seen.
‘These crime groups blight society by manufacturing and selling controlled drugs. We will never stop trying to bring them down and this type of activity will continue.’
No arrests have yet been made.