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£1m-a-year cannabis plotters are jailed
Police raid smashed massive drugs operation, court told
Olwen Dudgeon
POLICE smashed one of the biggest drugs operations ever found in the North of England when they raided premises in Lincolnshire capable of growing and harvesting skunk cannabis valued at more than 1m a year.
Officers from North Yorkshire police seized hundreds of cannabis plants in outbuildings set up with special ventilation, heating, lighting and watering equipment with the aim of providing a crop ready each month.
Andrew Campbell QC, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday that a surveillance operation was mounted on the sophisticated enterprise at Longleys, in Padmore Lane, Upton, near Gainsborough. It revealed the man running the premises from day to day was Robert John Wood, while the financial backer of the illegal "farm", who organised the purchase of the buildings for 180,000, was North Yorkshire businessman Geoffrey Paul McMillan-Smith.
McMillan-Smith, 43, of The Stables, Pickhill, near Thirsk, was jailed for seven years, having changed his plea to guilty during his trial on a charge of conspiring to produce cannabis.
Wood, 55 from Upton, who admitted conspiracy at an earlier hearing last year, was jailed for four years after the prosecution described his role as "pivotal" in the operation.
A third man, Darren Dickinson, 40, of Thorn Park, Barker's Lane, Snainton, near Scarborough, who also changed his plea during the trial and admitted conspiracy, was jailed for three years. He admitted he helped with the cannabis crop between September 2004 and March 2005.
Commending all those involved in the investigation, Judge James Spencer QC said it was a well-planned conspiracy requiring the purchase of special equipment and constant care of the plants.
"It was a conspiracy that involved the production of cannabis on a significant scale and evidence given in the trial showed it was so organised there would be a harvest each and every month with at least 30 kilogrammes (66lb) of skunk cannabis being produced."
The drugs were was being sold at around 3,000 a kilo, producing at least 90,000 a month for the conspirators.
Mr Campbell said McMillan-Smith, who had spent time in prison in Spain after being convicted in 1996 of having 150 kilos (330lb) of cannabis in a lorry he was driving, had recruited Wood to live at the site in Lincolnshire to handle the day-to-day tasks.
McMillan-Smith was able to send his children to private school, drive expensive cars and enjoy a high standard of living from the profits.
Taryn Turner, for Wood, said he was now a broken man who faced an uncertain future when he was eventually released from jail. While he played an integral and important role in the cultivation, he was not the principal player.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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