New South Wales police have seized an estimated $3 million worth of cannabis from a warehouse in Bankstown.
After several weeks of watching and waiting, police raided a warehouse in Bankstown’s industrial district on May 18th. Inside, they found a large-scale cannabis cultivation operation hidden in plain sight.
Police believe the operation could have been running for several years, turning over millions of dollars of cannabis annually. While they did not specify an exact number, police believe they have seized over 600 cannabis plants valued at over $3 million.
The cannabis plants were stacked into six large rooms on the property. Each room was fitted with heat lamps, makeshift irrigation systems and piles of empty fertiliser bottles. According to 7News, the property was allegedly powered with stolen electricity through a “spaghetti maze of cables.”
This created a dangerous fire hazard that could have set the entire street ablaze, though 7News reports that neighbours did not suspect anything amiss was happening at the warehouse.
According to Detective Chief Inspector Darren Sly from Bankstown police, the warehouse operation was likely run by a crime syndicate to fund “other criminal enterprises”.
There’s so much money involved. Certainly, these syndicates don’t care about the home, or the warehouse or whatever property they’re using. It’s all about money to them.
So far, police have arrested one man in connection with the Bankstown cannabis operation. Police found the 28-year-old hiding upstairs during the raid.
Police have taken the cannabis operation down and are continuing investigations into the warehouse. The cannabis plants they seized will be destroyed with an incinerator. This bust is the third multi-million dollar cannabis operation to make headlines this year after police seized $5.8 million in cannabis from Schofields and $7 million in cannabis near Campbelltown.
