12,000-plant cannabis factory found in Soham warehouse after officers smell crop
Two officers who smelled cannabis in Fordham Road traced it to a warehouse on Regal Drive, Soham, on 28 May 2014, finding about 7,000 growing plants plus drying plants and root balls; two men fled through a window and one was later arrested.
🇬🇧 Regal Drive, Soham, Cambridgeshire · United Kingdom
Two officers on patrol in Fordham Road, Soham, smelled cannabis at about 11pm on 28 May 2014 and followed the scent to a warehouse on Regal Drive, where they forced entry and found one of the biggest cannabis factories ever discovered in Cambridgeshire.[1][2]Inside the former Garner Plastics unit, officers found about 7,000 growing plants as well as 400 drying plants and 5,000 root balls, headlined as 12,000 plants.[2]Detective Inspector Dave Murphy called it a significant seizure on an industrial scale.[2]Police put the potential yield at anywhere from £2 million to £6 million.[1][2]
Two men were inside the warehouse but broke free through a window and fled; one was later arrested, taken to Parkside police station in Cambridge, and bailed to return on 24 July.[1][2]The factory was believed to have been running for about a year, and the unit had been marketed for letting until June 2013.[1][2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The reports do not name the arrested man or say whether he was charged.
The Newmarket News front page carries photographs of the warehouse and the seized plants, but no direct image address could be recovered, so they are not listed as media.
A second, smaller cannabis factory found in Hasse Road, Soham, on 5 June 2014 is a separate event left out here.
West Midlands Police found a substantial amount of cannabis plants in two rooms of a property on Littleworth Avenue in Woodsetton, Dudley, during a drugs warrant on 6 November 2026. No arrests were made and the force said its investigation was continuing.
Cleveland Police raided a property in Thorpe Thewles near Stockton on 5 November 2026, finding nearly 400 cannabis plants valued at up to £335,000. Two men who fled were tracked by a police drone, arrested, and remanded in custody on charges of producing a Class B drug.
Greater Manchester Police officers found a cannabis farm of 49 plants and more than £25,000 in cash at a property on Stonesteads Way in Bromley Cross, Bolton, and arrested a 69-year-old woman. She was released on bail on suspicion of producing cannabis and abstracting electricity.
Staffordshire Police forced entry to a house on Buccleuch Road in Normacot, Stoke-on-Trent, on 4 November 2026 and seized more than 80 cannabis plants. A 42-year-old Stoke-on-Trent man was arrested on suspicion of cultivating cannabis and remained in custody for questioning.
