Cops raid hashish farm in The Archers village – days earlier than thriller blaze | UK | News | EUROtoday

Riot cops raided an enormous hashish farm in a village which impressed BBC Radio 4 sequence The Archers – two days earlier than it mysteriously burned down.

Two males aged 22 and 24 have been arrested following the dramatic bust at a warehouse in Hanbury, Worcs.

Footage exhibits officers utilizing chainsaws and battering rams to drive their means into the steel shed on The Saltway early on Wednesday morning. Dozens of officers crossed countryside to achieve the unlawful hashish farm and caught two males who have been asleep in a makeshift dormitory.

West Mercia Police seized practically 500 hashish vegetation with a avenue worth of £410,000. Large-scale electrical, lighting and cultivation techniques linked to the manufacturing of hashish have been additionally discovered.

There was additionally additional proof on the scene of a develop that had already been cropped. The raid got here after intelligence was developed across the location following considerations about medication and suspicious exercise within the space.

The manufacturing facility was within the idyllic village of Hanbury which is extra nicely often called the
setting of long-running radio sequence The Archers.

Many of the historic buildings and the parish church have been the inspiration behind the fictional village of Ambridge.

In a twist, the warehouse which police raided was destroyed in a hearth on Friday morning. Fire investigators are nonetheless figuring out the reason for the blaze.

Police Sergeant Shaun Blackshaw mentioned: “Cannabis farms like to this are often linked to serious and organised crime gangs, the drugs they sell have a negative impact on our communities and can lead to other localised criminality.

“The cultivation of these crops can also lead to the harm and exploitation of vulnerable people.”

Ervin Aliaj, 24, and Ndoj Ardit, 22, of no mounted addresses, have been charged manufacturing of a category B drug – hashish and abstracting electrical energy.