Nicholas Pritchard, a letting agent from Y Felinheli, and twins Keith and Edward Reid, builders from Anglesey, were jailed at Caernarfon Crown Court for helping run a cannabis factory network worth almost £14 million.[1] Pritchard received three and a half years, Keith Reid two and a half years and Edward Reid eighteen months, after all three were convicted of conspiracy to produce cannabis and of money laundering through letting and converting buildings into factories.[1][2]
The factories
North Wales Police’s Operation Jade found what was thought to be the largest cannabis farm in Britain: 11,276 plants in a converted building supplies store in Bangor.[1] Detectives said a Chinese organised crime gang began renting industrial and residential premises across Conwy, Colwyn Bay, Deganwy, Wrexham, Caernarfon and Bangor in September 2007, and thousands more plants were found at sites beyond Bangor.[1] A temporary detective constable’s investigation led officers to about 11,000 plants at the old Jewson site on Bangor High Street, work the judge praised as exemplary.[2] Police also seized £160,000 in cash, high-value items and seven cars.[1]
The case ends
Twenty Chinese and Vietnamese people had already been convicted and jailed, including Bo Xing He, 31, who received nine years the previous year for running factories across north Wales.[1] In all 23 people were convicted of cannabis production offences.[1] The judge told the three that large-scale cultivation was a huge problem in England and Wales, and warned that a proceeds-of-crime inquiry would try to recover their gains.[1][2]
