Men guilty over cannabis factory found in Leicester

The electricity meter at the building was bypassed and £60,000 of electricity was stolen

A group of men have been convicted of running the largest cannabis factory found in Leicestershire.

About 6,000 cannabis plants, worth £1.7m, were found at an empty factory on Cyprus Road in Leicester in October.

Ming Feng Wu, 37, was found guilty of the production of cannabis.

Zhi Lin, 28, Xiao Chen, 24, and Jian Chen, 27, were found guilty of cultivating cannabis at Leicester Crown Court. All were of no fixed abode and will be sentenced later.

Mohammad Mushtaq Khan, 54, of St Paul's Avenue, Willesden, London, was found guilty of the production of a class B drug and abstracting electricity and concealing criminal property.

Meter bypassed

The court heard the electricity meter at the building was bypassed and £60,000 of electricity was stolen.

After the hearing, Det Con Nicole Main, said: "This is the largest cannabis factory ever found in the city and county.

"It was a large scale, highly organised operation that was labour intensive and required people to be on site for 24 hours a day to tend to the plants and ensure the smooth running of the operation.

"Drugs blight communities, fuel further crime and ruin lives. This case has stopped millions of pounds of cannabis from hitting the streets of Leicestershire and Rutland."

The men are due to be sentenced on 31 August.