700 cannabis plants found in Monaghan house

GARDAÍ IN Monaghan have discovered a cannabis-growing facility in a house as part of a cross-Border investigation with the PSNI into the activities of Chinese criminals.

The discovery of the 700 plants growing in a house just outside Castleblayney yesterday morning is linked to two similar discoveries in Co Monaghan in August and a series of similar finds in Northern Ireland.

Gardaí moved in on the house at Readuff, Loughmourne, about seven miles from Castleblayney, after a large volume of plants were found by the PSNI in a house in Culloville, Co Armagh, on Monday. A man arrested at the Monaghan house yesterday is linked to the people behind the cultivation facility found in the North on Monday.

Garda sources said the house in Readuff was set up in an identical fashion to the two facilities discovered in Crumlin-Threemilehouse and Aghataminy, both in Co Monaghan, in August.

Almost 700 plants were found growing in three upstairs rooms under rows of heat lamps. A moisture extraction system had been built to keep conditions as dry as possible. The bedroom walls were insulated with tinfoil and floors insulated with plastic sheeting.

The machinery was all being powered with electricity stolen by bypassing the meter in the house.

Garda sources said this technique was used so the owner of the house, who was renting it to the arrested man, would not become suspicious by the high volume of electricity being used at the property.

A Chinese national in his early 20s was at the property and was was taken for questioning to Carrickmacross Garda station. The man was staying in the house and is believed to have been tending the plants.

The estimated street value of the plants seized was put at €420,000 by Garda sources.

Garda sources say Chinese gangs have moved their production to Northern Ireland and just south of the Border following recent police raids in Britain.

The PSNI has discovered more than 65 cultivation facilities in houses in the North since the start of the year.

Gardaí believe the cannabis plants are processed either in Belfast or Dublin.