Police teams tackling the threat presented by industrial scale cannabis farms in mid and West Wales have taken more than £12 million worth of cannabis out of the supply chain thanks to busts in places including a former Llandysul school and a closed supermarket just yards from Newcastle Emlyn police station.

Raiding buildings from former schools and empty town centre shops to a disused newspaper office, Dyfed-Powys Police has successfully disrupted 37 commercial sized cannabis farms over the past year alone, with 35 people arrested for their involvement.

And their work will not stop there, as proactive policing teams across Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Powys continue to gather and act on intelligence as part of Operation Scotney - a CID-led operation launched in response to the increasing number of cannabis factories being established by organised crime gangs.

Scotney has proven to be the force’s widest and most successful drugs operation to date, with cannabis worth over £12 million in street value seized and destructed, along with tonnes of commercial scale heating and lighting equipment.

Explaining how the operation came to be, Detective Chief Inspector Rich Lewis said: “Through proactive policing work taking place across the force, it came to our attention that a number of large scale cannabis factories were being discovered in seemingly unconnected areas.

“We’re talking about thousands of plants being seized during each warrant, which for us was highly unusual.

“It was established fairly quickly that these factories were in fact linked, in that the people we suspected to be responsible were believed to have been recruited by organised crime gangs from outside the force area, hoping to go undetected in our rural towns.

“Given the size of the factories and the quantities of cannabis being discovered, we knew we needed to take firm action, and so Operation Scotney was launched at the beginning of 2024.”

Led by the force’s Criminal Investigation Department, Operation Scotney sees detectives, intelligence experts and proactive policing officers work together to establish where the factories are being set up, and to swoop in and disrupt them before the cannabis grows can be cultivated.

So far, 37 warrants have been executed in the four divisions, with tens of thousands of plants discovered.

Over the course of a year, 35 people have been arrested and charged under Operation Scotney: 29 of these have been jailed, four are awaiting sentencing, two are yet to enter a plea, and two additional people have been deported following arrest.

Three men were jailed last month after pleading guilty to producing large amounts of cannabis worth up to £620,000 at a former primary school building in Llandysul.

Njazi Gjana, aged 27, and Ervin Gjana, aged 24, were both sentenced to two years and six months in prison, while 29-year-old Armeld Troski was handed a sentence of three years and four months for the offence.

Dyfed-Powys Police carried out the warrant at the former school on Heol Llyn y Fran on 15 November last year following reports from the public about suspicious activity there and discovered more than 730 cannabis plants growing at the site.

Two other men pleaded guilty to drugs charges stemming from another raid of a former Llandysul school on Marble Terrace.

The total street value of the cannabis bud and plants seized during that warrant would have been up to £1,960,000, police said.

The sophisticated set-up also included a number of CCTV cameras installed around the building, police said.

Alfred Perkola, aged 43 from Ealing in London, and Adli Gjegjaj, aged 25 of Salford are due to be sentenced on 26 February.

In November, as part of the operation, raided the former Co-operative store on Sycamore Street in Newcastle Emlyn where officers discovered approximately 435 cannabis plants and growing equipment.

The empty shop is four doors down from Newcastle Emlyn police station.

No arrests have been made in connection with that discovery.

Other warrants were executed at the former County Times offices and two other locations in Welshpool, alongside dozens of others throughout mid and west Wales as the crackdown continued.

DCI Lewis explained that the factories discovered by the operation are not being set up in hidden away places, where criminals can come and go undetected, but in public areas, town centres and even on the same street as a police station.

“What has been incredible, alongside the amount of cannabis we have discovered being grown, is the brazen approach those responsible have taken,” DCI Lewis said.

“We’ve seen former schools, empty shops, and a former newspaper office used as cannabis factories, and a number of these were in town centres where it would be very difficult to go unnoticed.

“This led us to believe the gangs are using bold tactics such as disguising themselves as construction workers or landlords to enter and leave these buildings without raising suspicions.

“Their tactic was to hide in plain sight - who would suspect that someone wearing a high visibility vest carrying large boxes into a disused building in broad daylight could be setting up a cannabis factory?

“The fact that 400 plants were found just four doors down from the police station in Newcastle Emlyn just goes to show their determination to carry out their criminal endeavours – but our determination to stop them is greater.”

Rather than becoming disillusioned by the size and scale of these cannabis factories, Dyfed-Powys Police is more committed than ever to eliminate the threat, with sources of intelligence scrutinised daily and plans quickly put in place where a new cannabis factory is suspected to have been set up.

As officers continue their work, they are asking members of the public to be vigilant, to be aware of the signs that a cannabis factory is operating, and to report any concerns to the force.

“We have openly shared the results of Operation Scotney warrants, and will continue to do so as we enter 2025,” DCI Lewis said.

“It has proven to be a very successful operation so far, and we’re making great strides towards the force priority of making the Dyfed-Powys area hostile to those who deal drugs.

“We will continue our work to tackle the vulnerability posed by these gangs, and we will act on any intelligence supplied by the public that could assist us in achieving this aim.

“Alongside this, we will have a focus on those individuals enabling this criminal activity to take place in their properties.

“By this we mean investigating people renting or leasing premises without due diligence, those supplying electrical goods and hardware including hydroponics, and anyone profiting from this endeavour.”

The most frequent signs of a cannabis factory are heat, smell, an accumulation of ‘garden’ waste outside, 24 hour lighting, signs of the area suffering unusual power outages, and buildings were windows are covered or have extra locks installed.

Police also said to look out for people coming and going at odd hours, or a building where the lights are constantly on but nobody appears to be there.

Anyone with concerns or information can contact Dyfed-Powys Police online at bit.ly/DPPContactOnline, emailing [email protected] or by phoning 101.“

Alternatively, contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously by calling 0800 555111, or visiting crimestoppers-uk.org.