POLICE recovered drugs worth £120,000 from two cannabis "factories" that had been set up in houses in Edinburgh, a court heard yesterday.
The discoveries were made during Operation Arduous, a UK-wide investigation into illegal immigration and drugs which has led to a number of prosecutions.
The High Court in Edinburgh was told inquiries had revealed that Chinese nationals had paid
to be smuggled into the country, and were provided with accommodation in return for doing work "wherever and whenever requested".
An arrangement was uncovered whereby individuals were brought to Edinburgh where they "decorated" properties to make them fit for the production of cannabis. The work involved placing plastic sheeting over floors, walls and windows, and the installation of extensive systems of heating, lighting and watering. Effectively, hothouses were created.
Advocate-depute, Derek Nelson, said staff at B&Q had been asked to be on the alert for people buying suspicious amounts of electrical equipment, and the police were called to the firm's store in Livingston, West Lothian, in January last year when Zhaolong Lin, 36, and another Chinese man tried to buy more than £600 of goods. The other man also had a receipt for £350 of equipment. Police detained and spoke to the men, but decided to release them.
Then on 22 March, officers received an anonymous tip-off and raided a house in Castle Park Glade, Craigmillar. They found "a large-scale cannabis cultivation operation." About 370 plants and two bags of cut and dried plants were recovered, worth £62,150. A few days later, a second factory was found at Burnhead Crescent, Gracemount, and 392 plants worth £58,800 were seized.
Zhaolong Lin and Bang Xiang Lin, 25, were each jailed for three years, and Ding Hui Wang, 19, was sentenced to two years and three months after they admitted producing cannabis.
