Cannabis farm worth £2.5m discovered after tip-off

One of the biggest cannabis farms a police force says it has ever uncovered was found after a tip-off.

More than £2.5m worth of drugs were seized by Cleveland Police from a disused unit on Longbeck Trading Estate in Marske-by-the-Sea, Teesside, on Monday morning.

Acting on information from the public, aerial surveillance showed heat coming from the property.

Officers said the cannabis plants would be destroyed and that an investigation was under way.

Thousands of plants were discovered across several growing areas, police said.

The force said it was a "sophisticated operation" with hundreds of thousands of pounds being spent on electrical equipment.

Specialists were called to the scene to make the electrics safe as they had been tampered with, officers added.

Ch Insp Tom Sewell from Cleveland Police said: "I'd ask workers and visitors to other nearby businesses to think back and to check their company CCTV or even their own dashcam to see if they've captured anything which could help."

Police said no-one was present at the address during the raid, but that a Mercedes sprinter van was recovered from the location.

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