£1.5m cannabis farm... in a police station
WITH brazen contempt for the law, criminals set up a £1.5million cannabis factory in a disused police station.
Remnants of the massive drugs farm, with more than 1,000 plants, were discovered when officers found the building unlocked.
But they arrived too late to catch the culprits, who had cleared out the lucrative crop only hours before.
Campaigners last night said the discovery was a humiliation for Greater Manchester Police, which closed the Failsworth station and four others three years ago.
The cannabis farm was discovered at the station in Oldham on Wednesday. The entire first floor of the building, including the inspector’s office, and loft had been taken over for the plants.
The station was shut following budget cuts six years ago and sold at auction. Despite the nearest operational police station being less than a mile away, no one had noticed the building was being used to grow drugs.
When officers searched it, they discovered plant root balls, soil, empty pots and hydroponic lighting equipment used to cultivate the Class B drug.
David Green, director of the Civitas thinktank, said: ‘Most of these growers know that very little will happen to them if they are detected. The police don’t seem to be interested in cannabis.
‘Where people are found to be growing huge amounts of cannabis they ought to be prosecuted accordingly, but they are not. There are no consequences. We are effectively seeing legalisation by the back door.
‘It is rather ironic that a cannabis farm has been found in a disused police station. I’m sure these offenders got more than a little satisfaction from that fact.’
A £3million cannabis factory was found inside a former bingo hall in Northamptonshire last month. Others have been found in empty banks, GP surgeries, sports centres and even a nuclear bunker in Wiltshire.