COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Police have seized over £2million worth of cannabis plants after finding the city’s biggest drugs factory in a former indoor market.



The haul of 2,145 plants was discovered by West Midlands Police in the empty market in Riley Square, Bell Green, on Thursday night.

Officers raided the building at 9pm and arrested three men, aged 20, 47 and 50, who are believed to be from Vietnam, on suspicion of cannabis cultivation.

As we went to press they were still being questioned.

One man is currently in hospital with an undisclosed injury - believed to be a broken ankle.

The police neighbourhood team executed a warrant after they became increasingly suspicious about what was happening inside the premises.

Sgt Hinesh Mehta, of the Longford neighbourhood team, said: “This appears to be a professional set-up producing a large quantity of drugs.

“We are committed to tackling drugs and act on information we receive from the public.

“We would encourage anyone with suspicions about an address they believe is linked to drugs to contact us.”

The cannabis factory is the biggest drugs discovery in Coventry for many years.

Three men jailed over Coventry's biggest ever cannabis farm

Three Vietnamese men who were caught when the police discovered Coventry’s biggest ever cannabis farm have been jailed.

More than 2,000 plants were seized at the disused indoor market in Riley Square, Bell Green, and would have had a street value of up to £1.5million.

Anh Hoang, 20, of Exeter Street, Birmingham, Su Nguyen, 50, and Dat Nguyen, 47, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to producing cannabis at the premises in February.

Hoang was jailed for 20 months, while the two older men, both of no fixed address, were sentenced to two years – and all three will be deported after serving their sentences.

Prosecutor Justin Jarmola said the police executed a drugs warrant at the former indoor market at 8.45pm on February 4 and made Coventry’s “largest seizure of cannabis ever”.

All three men were inside when the police burst in and, in a bid to escape Dat Nguyen, jumped off a 20-foot roof “which did him more harm than good”, observed Mr Jarmola.

The other two were arrested inside and taken to the police station while Dat Nguyen, who had hobbled into the dock on crutches, was first taken to hospital.

Seven rooms in the premises were being used for growing cannabis and Mr Jarmola said there were 300 empty pots, from which 18 bags of skunk cannabis had been harvested weighing just under 30 kilos, as well as a total of 2,145 growing plants capable of producing a further 117 kilos of ‘flowering tops’.

The overall value of the crop would have been around £600,000 if sold in one kilo weights – or up to £1.5million in one-gram street-level deals.

He said the defendants were “the lowest link in the chain”, and pointed out that Dat Nguyen had entered his plea on the basis that he was working in a kitchen and had been approached to help harvest the crop, for which he was to be paid £400.