Lancashire Police raid cannabis farm at former Preston nightclub
3,000 cannabis plants worth approximately £2.5 million were discovered following a drugs raid in Preston.
Transcript
00:00Hello, I'm Digital Reporter Matthew for the Lancashire Post and I'm here in Aqueduct Street today where Lancashire Police have raided a cannabis farm.
00:08As we can see, that was seen here at the former Boiler House nightclub.
00:12The cannabis farm was discovered yesterday and officers are continuing to dismantle the grow this afternoon.
00:19Apologies for the traffic, it's a busy road this, really busy road.
00:23Lots of cars parked on the road and the addition of police vehicles and the CSI vans.
00:29It's a really busy atmosphere in Aqueduct Street this afternoon.
00:32As I was saying, the former Boiler House nightclub which has been closed for some years.
00:37It's been considered a derelict building really for some years.
00:43But as Lancashire Police have discovered, it's being used as a cannabis farm.
00:47I don't know how long for but around 3,000 cannabis plants were discovered inside this building on Sunday afternoon.
00:54Now that equates to a street value we think of around £2.5 million.
00:59So a really significant bust by Lancashire Police here.
01:02No arrests as yet, enquiries are ongoing to try and find out who's behind the cannabis farm and who's responsible.
01:09Electricity North West are also here, working on the electricity which was cut off.
01:16It was bypassed to allow the people behind the cannabis farm to benefit from free electricity.
01:21So that can make it quite dangerous for the property and for neighbouring properties.
01:25So Electricity North West are here on the scene to make that safe today.
01:28I'll just pan my camera around to see how busy it is on this road.
01:32So many police cars, there's more just around the corner parked on the old mill.
01:37And there's more just down the road there.
01:39CSI have been coming in and out of the building in the white suit, blue rubber gloves, masks on because I can imagine the smelling there is quite intense.
01:48You can't smell anything around here so there's no giveaway that this former nightclub was ever a cannabis farm.
01:53You can't smell anything.
01:54That familiar aroma that we're all familiar with around in towns and cities these days.
01:59But police busy at work, coming in and out of the building.
02:03From what I've seen so far, they've not brought anything out, any evidence bags.
02:06So I believe the plants are still in there and they're busy at work trying to dismantle them in a safe way.
02:12Some officers just coming out of there, as you can see.
02:17So we're going to follow this up with Lancashire Police, try and get more details for you.
02:21Try and find out who was behind this cannabis farm, whether the landlord of the building knew, was aware of this happening in his property.
02:30So lots of questions still to be asked and to be answered by Lancashire Police.
02:33But we'll bring you those details later on in the day.