A GANG member has been found guilty of drug offences after an industrial-scale cannabis operation was uncovered by police.
Terence Murphy, 47, of Purfleet, was one of 15 men from across the South East found to be involved in a gang that produced “industrial quantities” of cannabis with a street value of more than £50million a year.
Murphy was found guilty of conspiring to produce cannabis and abstracting electricity.
The gang farmed drugs at locations in Kent and Norfolk between 2013 and 2015 and it is believed to be the biggest conspiracy to grow cannabis uncovered in the UK.
The Old Bailey heard, at the start of a four-day sentencing hearing, farms were discovered at industrial sites in Gravesend, Rochester, Sittingbourne, and North Walsham in Norfolk.
A total of 16,428 cannabis plants were seized from all the sites, which the prosecution said gave an estimated street value for a single year of between £25,418,160 to £51,852,840.
Dale Sullivan, prosecuting, said: “These cannabis factories when compromised by police contained thousands of cannabis plants and had the capability of producing an annual amount that would have yielded a return measured in millions of pounds.
“On a single crop basis, the prosecution submits that the amount of cannabis produced at each of the seven production sites can properly be described as an operation capable of producing industrial quantities for commercial use.”
The huge operation came to light after police uncovered one of the seven factories in Rochester, in June 2013, following reports of a burglary.
Officers entered and found the farm inside the industrial unit which had been leased by James Allen, since December 2012.
During their investigation police found Allen, along with other members of the gang, had rented three industrial units in the Canal Basin, in Gravesend, Kent, using false details.
Officers were called to the area following reports of a disturbance in June 2017, and found one defendant in his car and a small cannabis plant on the floor nearby.
They searched the site and found four separate growing rooms with plants at different growing stages, as well as cables running to a second unit next door.
In the following days, officers found two larger cannabis factories in the other units.
The men are due to be sentenced today.
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