Two held after grow-house raid
The Polish men, aged 25 and 27, were due before a special sitting of Mallow District Court where they were each due to be charged in connection with the discovery of an estimated €150,000 worth of cannabis plants.
The pair were arrested when gardaí from the Mallow drug unit, acting on intelligence, swooped on a two-storey house in the Newtwopothouse area, just off the road to Buttevant, at around 9.45pm on Friday.
Detectives found the entire upstairs of the house had been converted into a cannabis plant nursery.
They found some 200 cannabis plants at various stages of maturity growing in four of the upstairs rooms.
Seedlings were being nurtured in the hot press, while at least 100 of the plants were close to maturity, and almost ready to be harvested.
Sophisticated ventilation, lighting and fertilising facilities had been installed in each of the rooms.
Gardaí also found a remote-control heating system which could move on tracks between the rooms at night-time.
Supt Pat McCarthy described the set-up as extremely sophisticated.
“Gardaí were acting on intelligence and as a result of good police work,” he said.
The two Polish men were arrested at the scene and detained under the provision of drug trafficking legislation and were taken to Mallow Garda Station for questioning.
The seizure comes just days after gardaí in Fermoy discovered another cannabis grow-house in a rented house in an estate in the village of Ballyhooly and seized plants worth in the region of €30,000.
A 28-year-old Polish man was arrested.
Late last month, in nearby Kildinan, gardaí detained a man in his 20s when they raided a house which contained about €40,000 worth of cannabis plants in various stages of growth.
Another major grow-house was discovered in Newcestown, near Bandon, on Nov 2 when drugs squad detectives discovered 200 plants and some cultivated cannabis with a street value of €170,000.
irishexaminer.com
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