Gardaí investigate Cork growhouse

Garda technical experts are due to carry out a forensic examination of a cannabis growhouse in north Cork where gardaí yesterday found €640,000 worth of the drug.

Detectives arrested five Chinese nationals aged in their late 20s and early 30s when they raided a warehouse in Rathcormac near Fermoy at about 4pm yesterday.

Officers found about 800 cannabis plants - each with an estimated street value of €800 on maturity - at the warehouse, which was divided into separate rooms for growing the plants.

Officers are assessing the growhouse, and Garda sources have described it as a highly sophisticated operation involving a lot of preparation.

Gardaí said special lamps were being used to help grow the plants, which were being cultivated hydroponically involving special baths of water.

Gardaí are trying to establish how long the warehouse was operating. Going on the maturity of the plants, they believe cultivation may have only started about a month ago.

All five suspects were arrested under drug trafficking legislation which allows gardaí to hold suspects for up to seven days before they have to be released or charged.

Two of the suspects are being questioned in Midleton Garda station and two at Cobh Garda station, and the fifth is being questioned in Fermoy.

The operation was carried out as part of an investigation into the cultivation and distribution of cannabis and other controlled drugs in the Munster region.

The operation was carried out by members of the National Drugs Unit and the North Cork Divisional Drugs Unit, backed up the Cork City Divisional Drugs unit.