Hidden factories

Jun 20 2008 by Laurie Stocks-Moore, Chester Chronicle

ON MAY 23, police found a cannabis factory when they went to a house in Green Lane, Vicars Cross, where a fire had been caused by overloading the electrics to supply high-powered lighting.

The next day, another landlord discovered a cannabis factory at his property in Cotebrook Drive, Upton, and apprehended 46-year-old illegal immigrant Ming Zhou.

Zhou was charged with being concerned in the production of cannabis and remanded in custody.

A cannabis factory was also uncovered in Vicarage Road, Hoole, on September 11 last year, where mature plants were seized with an estimated street value of £90,000.

Residents contacted police with concerns about the smell coming from the address, where people, believed to be of Chinese origin, were living.

In 2006, another factory was found in Greenway, Saughall when a four bedroomed house owned by Mark Trevor Archer, 49, of Warburton Street, Stockton Heath, had almost 2,000 cannabis plants squeezed into the upstairs rooms. He was jailed in November 2007 for four years.