A couple became ringleaders of a drug production empire after the death of two of their three daughters, it has emerged.

Darren and Debra Wright face long prison sentences after police smashed their multi-million pound cannabis farming operation, dating back to 2008.

Police described the couple, formerly of Canterbury Road, Herne Bay, as the main organisers of the network uncovered by the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate.

Darren Wright, 47, and his 48-year-old wife decamped to the Costa Del Sol last month but were arrested following extensive enquiries by detectives.

They admitted their conspiracy to produce the drug at Maidstone Crown Court, bringing an end to a downward spiral which began with the death of their two daughters.

Their child Chloe attracted national media during a two-year battle with a rare aggressive cancer.

An appeal raised £260,000 for her treatment at a medical centre in Houston, Texas, which provided the only hope for any recovery.

She died, aged four, at their family home in July 2004.

Tragically, three years later, their nine-year-old daughter Ella died after she was infected with staphylococcus bacteria, which her mother believed she contracted after a visit to hospital.

Now their only surviving daughter Kerry, now 17, has learned her parents will face lenghty jail terms for their part in a huge drugs ring.

The couple were involved in the organisation of many sophisticated cannabis factories discovered across Kent.

They were found in Lodgewood Road, Ashford, a farm in Wootton and units in Coombe Valley Road, Dover, and the Joseph Wilson industrial estate in Whitstable.

Two more factories were raided in Canterbury Road and Mortimer Street, Herne Bay, in 2012.

Judge Charles Macdonald QC remanded the couple, now of Pevensey Bay, East Sussex, in custody after they entered the pleas at Maidstone Crown Court. They will be sentenced on July 25.

DC Donna Hopper, who headed the investigation with DC David Godden, said afterwards: "It is estimated that the potential income from these factories was in the region of £4million, with some of the factories containing around 2,000 plants.

"It was a sophisticated set up managed by Vietnamese illegal immigrants who had to live in cramped and dangerous conditions.

"Evidence of the Wrights' involvement came as a result of extensive enquiries following the discovery of a number of individual factories.

"We were able to link the factories to a John Read who was imprisoned for 10-years in 2011 for three of those finds."

DC Hopper added: "With the discovery of two more cannabis houses in Herne Bay in 2012 the net tightened on the Wrights and they fled to Spain.

"It transpired they owned property there and by working with the Spanish Police we were able to locate them and extradite them back to the UK.

"We work closely with forces in other countries and will leave no stone unturned to ensure that those responsible for criminal activity are held to account."

The Wrights" convictions bring the total number of offenders convicted of involvement in the operation to 13.