Two Lithuanian men appeared in court on Wednesday accused of involvement in a cannabis factory which had around 400 plants.
Newry Magistrates Court heard that with several rooms in the house on Canal Street in the city converted into “grow rooms,” police seized a “substantial quart of harvested herbal cannabis” with the total haul said to be worth around £250,000.
Appearing in the dock along with an interpreter, 34-year-old Kestutis Kazlaukas and Modestas Stepanovas (29) confirmed the understood the five charges against them, all alleged to have been committed on 7 October this year.
The defendants are accused of cultivating cannabis at their home on Canal Street, being concerned in the supply of cannabis, possessing the class B drug with intent to supply, simple possessing of cannabis and dishonestly using a quantity of electricity.
Giving evidence to the court a detective outlined that when police searched the house on Monday evening, both defendants were present in the property where several rooms had been “completely converted into growing rooms, full of cannabis plants” at various stages of growth.
The sophisticated cannabis factory encompassed sheeting, lighting and heating and the electricity supply had been tampered with to such degree that an engineer had to attend to make it safe.
The garage had also been converted to a grow room and the officer revealed police also found “large refuge sacks with harvested waste, indicating that the set up had been going for a considerable time.”
In total police seized around 400 plants “at various stages of growth” and after they were arrested, both Kazlaukas and Stepanovas admitted being involved in the cultivation but denied being involved in drug supply.
Kazlaukas’s defence solicitor Ruairi Gillen said that according to his client, he had come to Northern Ireland for work but when he was out to work tending the plants, “he realised it wasn’t where he should have been” so he had a flight booked to go back to Lithuania next week.
He suggested that with both men making admissions at interview, “it’s very straight forward case so let’s deal with it quickly and get it disposed of.”
Remanding both men into custody, District Judge Eamon King adjourned the case to 6 November.