Cannabis factory found above Nelson shop (From Burnley and Pendle Citizen)
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Cannabis factory found above Nelson shop
12:00pm Tuesday 5th March 2013 in News
A SHOP raided for selling illegal tobacco and found to be housing a cannabis factory faces losing its licence.
Top Shop, in Whitehough Place, Nelson, was searched in a joint operation between Lancashire County Council’s Trading Standards team and the police on November 29 last year.
Officers found illegal Golden Virginia tobacco at the shop which was incorrectly packaged, with health warnings in the wrong language.
Now police have confirmed the shop faces a licence review before Pendle Council on March 19.
Sgt Michelle Dixon, from the police’s licensing department, said the review had been called because they felt the premises had “completely undermined” the licensing objectives.
During the raid, Trading Standards officers followed a trail of fertiliser bottles and a suspicious smell of drugs.
That led them to the cannabis factory on the first floor of the small premises.
Officers discovered the upstairs lights were not working and the electrics had all been tampered with.
The windows were blacked out, with industrial heating and ventilation ducts installed.
In two bedrooms they found around 50 pots of growing cannabis plants, with a substantial amount of drying cannabis leaves scattered all over the floors.
They were discovered together with plastic snap-bags commonly used for dealing.
A man was cautioned by police for allowing the premises to be used for the production of cannabis.
The shop was open for business yesterday but nobody wished to comment on the forthcoming review.
