Video: Drug dealers set up £1m skunk factory on posh street
13/07/2008
DRUG dealers set up a £1million skunk factory on a posh street – after telling estate agents they were SUSHI CHEFS.
They set up home in a rented £500,000 house – and turned it into a sub-tropical jungle of skunk, an extra-strong version of cannabis.
Police believe the Vietnamese gang managed to shift at least £600,000 worth of skunk in the nine months they used the house and the total value could run into millions.
The factory was busted after the “sushi chefs” failed to pay their monthly rent despite raking in a fortune from their illicit trade.
They had also failed to pay a £14,000 electricity bill clocked up running UV lights needed to cultivate the plants. The landlord dropped by to chase up rent to find his house had been trashed – and a sea of marijuana plants covered every inch of the property in Feltham, Middlesex.
A police source said: “The whole place stank and had been ripped apart to make it into a skunk factory. There were plants everywhere and dried marijuana leaves all over the floor.
“This was a professional operation and would have been making a fortune in the year or so they were in the property. The amounts involved could possibly top £1million. You are talking about £600,000 at least.
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“They put in lighting and air vents to cultivate the plants, used thousands of pounds worth of electricity and then ran off. Your typical sushi chefs these were not.”
The man who rented the house told the owner he was Chinese and gave a false name, address and phone number. Click player to see footage of the house...
Vietnamese gangs – also involved in murders, kidnappings and child trafficking – are said to run 75 per cent of
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: “A 54-year-old man contacted police having gained entry to his rental property. Upon entry he found a cannabis factory with plants and lighting. The contents of the house have been sent for analysis and inquiries continue.”