By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 11:44, Saturday, 17 May 2008

POLICE have uncovered a £1m cannabis farm in Cumbria.

Drugs bust: Some of the 1,600 cannabis plants discovered by police at a remote location in west Cumbria – worth around £800 each

Detectives say they seized 1,600 cannabis plants in a raid on a remote property with each of the plants having a street value of £800.

One man has been arrested and bailed in connection with the discovery of the cannabis.

Detectives, who said the “potential total yield” of the cannabis was about £960,000, said their investigation was still underway and further arrests were expected.

The announcement of the raid comes nearly two weeks after Cumbria police led an operation to seize cocaine with a street value of £15m

The latest discovery – in Copeland – comes as the Government moved to tighten the law surrounding cannabis, reclassifying it from a class C to a class B drug.

Police revealed details of the raid ahead of National Drugs Week, which starts on Monday to raise awareness of the battle against dealers and the treatment of addicts.

Over the past year, police have arrested 175 people on suspicion of supplying drugs in north and west Cumbria.

Officers also seized substances worth more than £2m and confiscated over £260,000 of allegedly illegally-gathered cash.

Their investigations led to some of Carlisle’s most wanted drug offenders being jailed for a total of more than 55 years.

Following the cannabis operation police issued pictures to the News & Star of the plants, which were discovered as part of an operation codenamed Kilowatt.

Police officers, who have not revealed the exact location of the cannabis farm, said it reinforced the message that production of the drug would be “rigorously” investigated. Speaking generally about drugs, they said the large scale production of cannabis was becoming an increasing problem nationally that should be nipped in the bud.

Detective Chief Inspector Keith Capstick said: “Cannabis cultivation is seen by professional criminals as a low risk, high profit industry.

“Not only is the money ploughed back into serious crime but the high levels of electricity needed to run the factories causes risk of fire and electrocution.”

Police said a 31-year-old man of Vietnamese nationality was arrested in the West Midlands on Thursday on suspicion of conspiracy to cultivate cannabis plants.

He was bailed to reappear at Workington Police Station on July 21.

First published at 09:17, Saturday, 17 May 2008
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk