Huge cannabis factory bust at former Northampton casino

Northamptonshire Police have revealed one of the biggest cannabis factories in the county’s history has been uncovered at the old casino building in Northampton town centre.

Today (October 30) at about 9am, officers from Northampton’s Neighbourhood Policing Team forced entry into the Commercial Street property and found thousands of cannabis plants across multiple floors.

Using chainsaws to gain access to the building, which used to be the former Aspers casino, police officers found a very organised setup in which significant efforts had been made to keep the police out including multiple doors bricked over and rooms reinforced with steel.

Neighbourhood Policing Inspector - Nic Davis-Lyons, said:

“First of all, I’d like to thank our local community for providing us with the intelligence we needed to secure this warrant and take down this criminal enterprise.

“The neighbourhood policing team have made a huge effort over the past six months to be more visible and engaged in the town and when we receive intelligence like this, we try to develop it as quickly as possible, in order to act swiftly.

“Obviously, we’re really pleased to get this amount of drugs off the streets, but there’s another side to it that we need to focus on. A production on this scale involves a lot of organisation, and there will be an organised crime group behind it. Quite often, they traffic and exploit people into operations like this, probably under threat of violence, and that’s a side people don’t often see.

“This isn’t just about cannabis or seizing drugs - it’s about identifying and targeting those who cause harm, exploit vulnerable people, and use them in operations like this.

“Work continues to dismantle the setup and I am grateful to the local community and businesses in the area for their patience, as well as our Intelligence colleagues and specialist officers who were invaluable today.”

Police say they have so far made one arrest - a 36-year-old man, arrested on suspicion of cultivating cannabis, who was on the premises this morning.

He remains in police custody at this time.

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