Strathclyde Police raided a disused furniture warehouse and adjoining premises on South Harbour Street in Ayr on Thursday 29 March 2007, seizing between 3,000 and 4,000 high-grade cannabis plants.[1][2] The plants, in various stages of growth across nine rooms over three floors, had a street value of up to £1 million, and police called it the largest cannabis cultivation factory ever found in Scotland.[1][2]
A 16-year-old boy from south-east Asia was arrested at the warehouse and charged with producing cannabis, supplying it and possessing it with intent to supply; he appeared at Ayr Sheriff Court and was remanded in custody.[1][2] A patrol officer had noticed a pungent smell coming from the building, and inside officers found a sophisticated hydroponic set-up worth about £50,000 that had bypassed the mains electricity supply.[1] Police said an organised crime group ran the factory and that two families living above it had not known what was there.[1]
The raid was part of Operation League, a Strathclyde Police drive against home-grown cannabis that had already seized about 8,000 plants across Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Glasgow.[1][2]
