by Paul Hooper

One of the organisers behind one of Kent's biggest drugs-producing networks was today jailed for 10 years.

Art gallery owner John Read, 54, from Marine Parade, Whitstable had been convicted of conspiring to produce illegal drugs with a street value in excess of £3m.

Michael Borelli QC, defending, told Canterbury Crown Court that Read had acted "as a front" because of his business connections.

He blamed his downfall on the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York which had lost his company a lucrative US contract.

"He went from successful businessman to, what was for him, an impoverished standing and became tempted by others to take part in a criminal enterprise."

The Judge, Recorder Peter Gower QC said it was a sophisticated operation to produce skunk cannabis on a large scale.

Police launched an undercover investigation - known as Operation Nursery - and raided three factories at Wootton, Dover and Whitstable between August 2009 and May 2010.

There they found thousands of cannabis plants being grown in barns and industrial units disguised as legitimate business premises.

Police also discovered that a number of Vietnamese teenagers had been recruited as "gardeners" and were living on site.

Documents seized during the raids at Higher Shelvin Farm, Wootton, Coombe Valley Road, Dover and Unit 1B, The Joseph Wilson Industrial Estate in Whitstable led to Read, who allegedly ran an art gallery in Tankerton.

During the four-week trial at Canterbury Crown Court he claimed he had befriended the widow of a friend who had lured him into forging documents for mortgages.

He told the jury that he was a "scapegoat" - they didn't believe him and found him guilty on six charges of illegally producing cannabis and perverting the course of justice.

A business associate, Roger Coombs, 70, from Crawley was given a nine months sentence suspended for two years and ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work. He had been convicted on one charge of perverting the course of justice.

The Crown Prosecution Service has now started proceedings against Read to confiscate some of his money under the Proceeds of Crime Act.