Office full of Pot

[Guest Urbanhog]

Sunday Star Times - Auckland, NZ

Edition ASUN 01 DEC 2002, Page 010

 

Dopey office products -

By Pravin Char

 

THERE was so much marijuana growing in a central Auckland office block that workers complained about the smell - yet police didn't sniff out the racket run right under their noses.

 

A massive cannabis growing operation involving almost 1000 plants had been housed for months in a first-floor flat on Vincent St - just a stone's throw away from police headquarters.

 

But police only became aware of the plantation when they were tipped off by workers who had been overwhelmed by the pungent smell.

 

When police raided the premises on Tuesday they discovered harvested cannabis and plants with a street value of more than $300,000.

 

The high quality weed was the product of a highly sophisticated hydroponic operation which detective Matt McLeod, the officer in charge of the crime scene, said was one of the biggest he had encountered.

 

Hundreds of plants filled four rooms, lined up in neat rows.

 

McLeod said as much as $40,000 had been spent transforming the warren of rooms into a cannabis hothouse and installing state of the art equipment including hi-tech growing lights, fans, window covers and reflective material on the walls to keep in the heat.

 

Source: Sunday Star Times, Auckland, NZ