Police dog helps uncover huge underground cannabis farm at allotment site

In the early hours of Friday morning, Durham Constabulary received reports of four men in balaclavas behind businesses in Coulson Street, Spennymoor.

Officers from South Area Response blue lighted to the scene and although the suspects had made off, the police dog was clearly intrigued by a container on a plot in the adjoining allotment while searching the area.

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PC Aaron O'Roarty then deployed the force drone and spotted a strong heat source coming from the container which had its lock broken.

And officers found more than carrots at the site with an underground cannabis grow full of mature plants in the 30ft space.

Just before 7am, the plot thickened when a black Mercedes then pulled up at the gates but swiftly made a U-turn when the driver spotted officers on scene.

Officers from the Durham Roads and Armed Policing Team chased it down on the A1 just over half an hour later.

A 45-year-old man from the Newcastle area, was subsequently arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the cultivation of cannabis and taken into police custody.

The grow will now be destroyed and enquiries are ongoing to trace the other suspects.

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