WHAT IS believed to be the largest cannabis cultivation operation detected in the State has been uncovered at a warehouse in Co Offaly.
About 5,000 cannabis plants valued at €1.5 million were discovered when gardaí from Tullamore, assisted by the regional support unit and the local drugs unit, raided a warehouse in Durrow, just outside Tullamore, on Tuesday night.
Three men, two in their 20s and a 30-year-old, were arrested during the intelligence-led Garda operation at about 9.30pm.
The three Asian men are being detained at Tullamore Garda station under section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act. The men can be held for up to a week.
A Garda spokesman described the “grow house” as highly sophisticated.
He said specialist lighting and equipment had been used in the operation and the electricity meter had been bypassed.
According to gardaí, the 5,000 plants were at various stages of growth and the grow house may have been in operation “for a number of months”.
On entering the premises, gardaí found evidence to suggest that the people who were tending to the plants had been living in the cannabis factory.
Such was the scale of the operation, gardaí expect it will take a number of days before all of the plants and associated paraphernalia are removed from the building.
Gardaí are planning to move the plants and equipment from the warehouse to Dublin and Tullamore for analysis and storage.
The discovery was made at a former warehouse for machine parts at Aughnacarna, Durrow, on a rural road just off the N52 on the approach to the Tullamore bypass.
Gardaí have sealed off the area and are conducting a detailed examination of the scene.
Electric Ireland was called in to repair and make safe the electrical supply.
Neighbours were shocked to learn of the discovery.
“You would, on an odd occasion, see a truck up there, but that wouldn’t be unusual,” one local man said.
He would often go for walks along the road, he added, but had never noticed anything out of the ordinary.
A member of the local community watch said she regularly passed the site but had never seen anything that might have aroused her suspicions.
This is the fourth major cannabis grow house to be discovered by gardaí in the midlands region in the past three weeks.
On January 9th, a 28-year-old Chinese national was arrested following the discovery of two grow houses containing 450 cannabis plants worth an estimated €180,000 in Mullingar, Co Westmeath.
He was subsequently charged with cultivating cannabis.
A 33-year-old Chinese national was arrested in Athlone, Co Westmeath, on January 11th, when 300 plants valued at €125,000 were discovered at a grow house in Baylough, Athlone.
He was also charged with cultivating cannabis.