British police find 6,000 cannabis plants in abandoned tire factory

British police have reportedly uncovered thousands of cannabis plants this week at an abandoned tire factory in what is being described as one of the largest weed kills in the area.

British newspaper The Independent reported that law enforcement in the otherwise sleepy Lincolnshire village “blew up one of their largest cannabis plants ever after discovering 6,000 plants in an old tire factory – thought to be worth around 6.5 have millions of pounds”.

“This is one of the largest cannabis cultivations we have settled in Lincolnshire to date and follows excellent intelligence development,” said Detective Inspector Richard Nethercott, as quoted by Lincolnshire World.

“Cannabis production is far from benign: it is often linked to broader organized crime, so tackling the broader problem of drug supply is one of our top priorities. Lincolnshire Police remain committed to cracking down on criminal businesses and getting drugs out of circulation.”

According to the BBC, three men “aged 28, 38 and 42, all of no fixed address, were taken into custody following the raid” and the facilities were “removed and destroyed”.

The raid “took place around 8 a.m. Tuesday at the property behind a rural village pub,” according to The Independent, which said the property was the site of “the old Kings Head tire factory at Hubberts Bridge, near Boston.”

While the raid may have been notable for Lincolnshire, here at High Times it falls into a well-known story genre that has chronicled some of the quirkier cannabis busts from across the pond.

In 2019, we told you about the 120-year-old Victorian-style theater in London that was the site of a $51 million marijuana farm.

Local authorities suspected that the growing site in the bowels of the old Broadway Theater, built in 1897, had been in operation for about a decade.

A London Police spokesman said that “officers were called to an address following reports of a disturbance”.

“They discovered a large number of cannabis plants along with equipment used in growing cannabis in an area below the residential lots. Three men, aged 28, 45 and 47, and a 36-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of growing cannabis. They were all released as part of investigations,” the spokesman said at the time.

A few years later, the British were at it again, this time discovering an illegal cultivation operation in a 17th-century castle in Somerset, southern England.

That same year, in 2021, a giant greenhouse was discovered in London’s financial district, which had gone silent amid the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown restrictions.

Police were then responding to reports of a pungent smell of cannabis in the area.

“This is the first cannabis factory in the city, undoubtedly built in response to fewer people being out and about during the pandemic who may have noticed unusual activity,” Andy Spooner, the London detective overseeing the investigation, told Time. “However, this shows that the City of London Police remain actively patrolling the Square Mile and prosecuting any crime committed here.”

And last year, the English village of West Parley provided another example after locals spotted half a dozen suspicious plants growing in a community garden.

The marijuana plants were hard to miss, with one local noting at the time that they “towered over the bedding plants.”