It has been a bumper year for cannabis farms in Wales with police uncovering large-scale cultivation operations in everything from a disused department store to a bingo hall and even specially-adapted lorry trailers. There is good money to be made from producing cannabis and many of the commercial farms found in Wales are set up and run by organised criminal gangs who often with links to international people smugglers.
The money made from the cannabis trade often goes towards funding other kinds of criminal activity. Here are some of the largest cannabis production operations found by Welsh police in the last 12 months along with some of ways police found the farms and the faces and stories of some of those caught tending the crops.
The people responsible for organising the plantations – the ones harvesting the massive profits while others harvest the plants and take the risks of being caught – remain unknown and seemingly beyond the reach of the law. For the latest court reports, sign up to our crime newsletter here
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The one in the former bingo hall
