Police Say $58 Million Cannabis Harvest Is a ‘Highly Sophisticated’ Example of Organized Crime
Cannabis plants worth nearly $58 million have been seized from a property in northern New South Wales.
Key points:
- Police seized more than 16,000 plants with an estimated street value of $58 million
- Police believe the northern NSW farm is part of a wider organized crime operation
- No one was on the remote property when it was raided by police and the operators remain at large
On Tuesday, officers from the State Crime Command Drug and Firearms Squad, Richmond Police District and PolAir located 19 large greenhouses at a secluded property in Ellangowan, south of Casino.
Police said 13 of the grow houses contained more than 16,000 cannabis plants at various stages of maturity.
Officers also located a large quantity of cannabis plants in a shed on the property and seized other items for further forensic examination.
The agents spent the day before dismantling the greenhouses and are going to destroy the plants.
Arrests still to be made
Richmond Police Detective Inspector Grant Erickson said no one has yet been arrested in connection with the transport.
“When we ran our crime scene powers there was nobody on the property, but it’s obviously very sophisticated and basically an example of organized crime in our area,” Detective Inspector Erickson said. .
“The amount of money these people are making from these types of business goals is astronomical.”
“We are looking at the connection of not only this grow house or farm, but also other farms that have been located across the state in conjunction with our State Crime Command.”
He said the farm was in a remote area and appeared to have been in operation for at least a year.
Detective Inspector Erickson said police were alerted to the farm by a member of the public.
“I would like to thank the community, without their help in giving us this type of information, we could not have achieved this result.”
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