Large cannabis factory found inside disused Worksop restaurant

Officers were called to a disused restaurant in Carlton Road, shortly before 12.30am yesterday morning after a break-in was reported.

Around 600 young cannabis plants were found by police alongside an array of sophisticated growing equipment.

Inspector Neil Bellamy said: “This was a very large and sophisticated cannabis grow that people had clearly spent a very great deal of time and money to establish.

"The plants we found were still very young but in a few months’ time they could have produced a crop worth many hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“It’s actually a property we’d been watching for some time so whoever decided to break into it actually did us a favour and spared us having to get a court warrant to take a closer look.

“I am aware that some people will claim that this is ‘only a bit of weed’ but cannabis cultivation on this kind of scale is a very serious offence that is often linked to organised criminality and serious associated offences such as people trafficking and modern slavery.

“It is not something we will ever turn a blind eye to.

"So if you are involved in this kind of activity please know that we may well be watching you already and we could be paying you a visit in the near future.

"I’d also like to pay tribute to the tenacity and inquiring nature of the officers involved who got a great result on this case.”

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