Huntingdon: Cannabis Farmers Jailed

29 November 2012, 10:41 | Updated: 29 November 2012, 12:03

Four men, who ran a cannabis factory in Huntingdon, have been jailed for a total of more than 15 years.

Officers raided the three-storey unit in Cirrus Court, Glebe Road, on the morning of Wednesday 1st February.

They discovered more than 700 plants and more than 1500 cuttings with a potential yield of nearly £1 million.

The factory had been in operation since May last year and had been set up to appear like a legitimate industrial unit.

Mark Larios (pictured top right), 43, from Grays, in Essex, and Matthew Prill (pictured in the middle), 34, from Kingsbridge, Devon, were arrested at the scene.

Larios, who acted as the head gardener, and Prill, who was brought in to help tend the plants, pleaded guilty to producing cannabis.

The day after, Vincent Gillet (pictured top left), 34, of Grays, in Essex, was arrested in Essex and also pleaded guilty to producing cannabis.

The fourth man, David Gorman (pictured bottom left), 54, who the prosecution said set up the business and paid rent on the premises, denied producing a controlled drug but was found guilty on Thursday 18th October after a trial at Huntingdon Crown Court.

Yesterday (November 28th), Gorman, of Hoe Lane, Nazeing, Essex, was jailed for seven years at Huntingdon Crown Court.

Prill and Larios were given credit for guilty pleas and jailed for 20 months and 30 months respectively.

Gillet, who managed the factory, was also given credit for pleading guilty and jailed for three years and four months.

Detective Chief Inspector Becky Tipping, from the force's serious and organised crime team, said: "These men used an industrial unit and set it up in such a way that they thought it would not be detected.

"It was producing cannabis that would have been sold at a region-wide level and we know they had been operating there since May of last year.

"This should be a warning to any others producing cannabis who think they can escape detection."