Police raid on Bilsthorpe barn shuts down cannabis factory

Police found more than 300 cannabis plants in the raid

Police arrested two men after discovering a cannabis farm in a barn.

Nottinghamshire Police said they carried out the raid after being alerted to the cannabis growing operation in Mickledale Lane in Bilsthorpe.

Officers said they recovered more than 300 plants and discovered "dangerous" and "haphazard" electric modifications.

Two men, aged 20 and 24, were arrested on suspicion of cultivating cannabis and abstracting electricity.

Both have been released under investigation.

The raid, carried out on Sunday morning, was part of Operation Reacher which aims to disrupt the drugs trade in the Newark and Sherwood area.

'Very real fire risk'

Police say the plants were found growing across five different rooms and that electricity had been illegally bypassed to power the large operation.

PC Dave Hauton said: "Breaking up cannabis farms like the one discovered here sadly take up far more of our officers' time than we'd like.

"The methods used to power these types of grows is also incredibly dangerous, with the haphazard modifications often made to wiring providing a very serious and very real fire risk to surrounding properties.

"It's exactly because we want to stop these types of things from happening that we treat all reports we receive about potential cannabis grows so seriously."