GARDAÍ ARE to send a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions after yesterday releasing without charge a man arrested for questioning about the operation of a cannabis factory in Cork city.
The man, who is in his 20s and from the Pouladuff area of Cork’s southside, was released without charge at about 4am yesterday after detectives at Gurranabraher Garda station finished questioning him about the cannabis factory discovered in a warehouse in Hollyhill.
An operation by detectives at Gurranebraher Garda station led them to a 3,000sq ft warehouse in the Hollyhill area where they found 1,200 cannabis plants under cultivation through hydroponics with an estimated street value of €400,000.
Gardaí believe that the cannabis factory had the capability to produce about €2 million worth of cannabis grass, with continuous cultivation generating up to four harvests a year of the drug which currently sells for about €10,000 a kilo.
Gardaí have established that the operators of the cannabis factory began renting the premises in February 2008.
They have described the operation as “highly-sophisticated and elaborate”, with up to €100,000 invested in equipment to grow the cannabis.
Detectives also raided a house in the Pouladuff area near Togher where they found documentation detailing what is required to set up a cannabis nursery using hydroponics. They also recovered up to €50,000 in another raid on a house at Tower near Blarney.
Members of the Garda Technical Bureau concluded their forensic examination of the warehouse yesterday, and officers began removing the huge stock of plants, some of which had matured and were more than six feet high.