EXCLUSIVE
by Suzy Shanley

A suspected cannabis factory operating in a modest town centre flat was only discovered after it caused a power failure in neighbouring shops.

Equipment used to grow more than 1,000 plants was taking so much electricity it melted a fuse box shared with two stores on the ground floor.

Shop owners in Gravesend couldn’t work out why their lights kept failing and reported the fault to electricity supplier EDF.

When EDF engineers inspected the panel in Wrotham Road they discovered the first floor property was using almost double the amount of power of East West Food & Wine and Amrit Jewellers combined.

Alarm bells rang and the police were called in last Friday at around 4pm.

After getting into the unoccupied property through a fire escape, they discovered more than 1,000 cannabis plants crammed into the two-bedroom flat, including the loft, with lights rigged up on the ceilings, and plastic sheeting covering the floors.

Sophie Walsh, 16, an apprentice at Raven’s Nest Tattoos in Wrotham Road, captured the moment police brought the bags of plants outside on camera.

She said: “We were a bit shocked at the amount they were bringing out, you could smell it really strongly in the air.”

Jane Wheeler, 48, living opposite the flat, saw the police bringing out the drugs and loading them in bags into a van.

“I was gobsmacked,” she said, “There must have been hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of drugs.”

After removing the plants and securing the property, police returned on Saturday to clear out all the equipment, throwing it into a skip on the busy Wrotham Road in front of bemused passersby.

Mrs Wheeler added: “There were hundreds of black flower pots, lights and tubing, all the paraphernalia they must have needed for a drugs factory.”

Resident Helen Hinks, 48, of Wrotham Road, said: “I never saw anyone coming or going from the flat, it was strange.”

Police were unable to confirm if any arrests had been made.