Guns, drugs and 800 parrots found at property

Zak Dearden was originally arrested for a drugs offence

Police seized guns, drugs and found 800 parrots when they raided the premises of a drug dealer who owned a pet shop, a court heard

Zak Dearden, 36, was jailed for 10 years at Manchester Crown Court, after admitting 13 offences including, drug dealing, firearms possession and possession of drugs.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said more than 50 officers took a month to search his property in Rochdale.

Det Sgt Steven Gilliland said: "Words do not do justice to the scale of the land as well as the amount of buildings and state of the buildings which impacted on the search."

Detectives described the search of Dearden's property as their most challenging ever

GMP said its officers first raided Dearden’s home address - a large plot of land with several containers, buildings and outbuildings on Dyehouse Lane, in Rochdale - in July last year.

Dearden was originally arrested, charged and remanded for a drugs offence but officers received intelligence he had guns at home.

A full search ended up lasting four weeks due to the scale of the property and uncovered five firearms with ammunition and drugs including 10kg of amphetamines valued at £100,000, 99g of cannabis oil valued at £12,884, £57,000 worth of cannabis and £4,685 worth of cocaine.

Dearden also ran a pet shop with his father selling exotic birds.

During the search officers found several hundred different animals including dogs, peacocks, parrots, mink, ferrets, ducks, Koi Carp and a bull.

At one count there were more than 800 parrots in separate outbuildings which had to be removed by an expert.

They were left in the care of Dearden's father afterwards.

Five firearms were found in the search

Det Sgt Gilliland said: “This was a very challenging search. It was the biggest I have ever been involved in.

“I would like to thank our officers and partners who helped assist with this investigation – the hazardous chemicals that Dearden was using to produce the drugs had to be disposed of by chemical disposal experts."

He added: "Our investigation managed to uncover vast amounts of dangerous, drugs, weapons and various animals living in terrible conditions.

“For example, we found 10 dogs living in what can only be described as their own filth."