A 12-strong gang have been jailed after carrying out one of the country's largest ever cannabis growing operations - capable of producing over £2m worth a year.
Around £55,000 had been spent equipping a converted warehouse with growing tents, ventilation, automatic watering and feeding requirements.
When the huge facility was raided by police - almost 1,000 maturing cannabis plants were found, estimated to produce an annual yield of £2.1m at street prices.
The group were jailed for a total of almost 53 years for the multi-million pound operation in Wakefield, West Yorks.
Sentencing the gang at Leeds Crown Court yesterday, Judge Rodney Jameson QC said: "It is one of the largest that has been detected so far as I am aware in the north of England.
"There cannot have been many larger that have taken place anywhere in the country."
Timothy Capstick, prosecuting, told the court when police raided the warehouse on July 17, 2012, they discovered 15 grow tents of which 11 contained 960 maturing cannabis plants while the other four were being used for a previously harvested crop.
There were also 342 young plants in a nursery growing area. The maturing plants would have been ready for harvest at different periods providing a continuous cannabis supply.
Several of the gang were arrested at the unit or in the surrounding area including Aidan Kent Panwar, 31, of nearby Bradford, who was found hiding in a brown wheelie bin.
The warehouse had been rented by Anthony John Stewart - described by the judge as the 'prime mover' in the scheme - in November the previous year.
Police surveillance had shown those visiting the warehouse did not travel there in their own vehicles but would park them elsewhere, often at the Colton Mills complex in Leeds and travel in hired vans picking up the 'gardeners'.
The judge said those gardeners spoke of earning £100 a day, the equivalent of £25,000 a year tax free.
Officers also discovered a black bin liner in the back of one van containing discarded gloves, and rubbish such as pizza boxes and sandwich wrappings being cleared away so nothing was left at the cannabis farm which might have fingerprints or DNA on them.
Detective Inspector Neil Hollis, of Protective Services Crime at West Yorkshire Police, said: "These men were involved in a highly organised set-up with the capacity to produce millions of pounds worth of cannabis.
"We will be pursuing confiscation proceedings against the defendants to ensure that the profits these men gained as a result of their criminal activity are put back in to our communities."
The Gang
- Anthony Stewart, 41, of Wakefield, who was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to produce cannabis was jailed for eight years and three months. Judge Jameson told him: "I have absolutely no doubt you are the prime mover of this scheme."
- Jamie Coolican, 37, of Leeds, was found guilty of the same offence and was jailed for seven years six months. The judge said he had supplied much of the finance for the infrastructure.
- Aiden Panwar, 31, of High Street Place, Idle, admitted conspiracy, and was jailed for five years and three months.
- Ian Heath Green, 24, of Bradford, who admitted conspiracy, possessing cocaine with intent to supply and possessing cannabis, was jailed for a total of five and a half years.
- Jeremy O'Connor, 31, of Leeds, who was found guilty of conspiracy, was jailed for five years.
- Christian Kaye, 35, of Leeds, was jailed for three years and eight months and his brother Andrew Kaye, 39, of Leeds, was sentenced to three years and four months after both admitted conspiracy.
- Michael Paul Kaye, 56, also of Leeds, was jailed for four years after he admitted conspiracy and a separate charge of producing cannabis.
- Scott Harland, 27, of Bradford, was found guilty of conspiracy and jailed for three years and six months.
- Nicholas Coleman, 28, of Leeds, and Samuel Shackleton, 22, of Bradford, were each jailed for two years and four months and Rhys Iwanczuk, 22 of Bradford, sentenced to two years after each admitted conspiracy.