An underground, almost completely impenetrable bunker, was discovered in the United Kingdom where British cops, acting on a tipoff, found a large-scale cannabis factory and 4,000 pot plants.
The police finally rounded up three men who admitted their part in running the bunker-turned-weed-farm.
Using keys found in the men’s possession after their arrest, the cops entered the bunker, where they found it was being powered by over a quarter of a million dollars worth of stolen electricity.
“There are approximately 20 rooms in the building, split over two floors, each 200 feet long and 70 feet wide,” Detective Inspector Paul Franklin, of the Dedicated Crime Team, told the Express. “Almost every single room had been converted for the wholesale production of cannabis plants, and there was a large amount of evidence of previous crops.”
The set up was so sophisticated that a crop could be produced every six weeks and sold across Southwest England.
The three ringleaders of the operation, who will be sentenced in August, were also charged with conspiracy to hold persons in slavery or servitude, but those charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence.
In that case, three teenagers, the youngest of whom was thought to be 15, and one adult in his 30s, were found working as gardeners inside the bunker. Living quarters were provided for the gardeners who tended the crops.
There were even nurseries to help start younger plants.
Simon Pope, Detective Inspector of the police in Wiltshire, a small town in Southwest England, described the discovery as “the biggest cannabis factory we’ve ever had in Wiltshire and the southwest region.”
Pope said breaking up the operation had stopped an “enormous amount of illegal drugs” from getting onto the streets in that part of England.
“The isolated and secure nature of the location made the warrant particularly challenging,” Pope told the Guardian.
Pope added that the site was so big it took 10 days to completely search and clear the site.
The underground nuclear bunker was constructed in the 1980s to house local government in the event of a nuclear attack during the height of the cold war.
