CANNABIS plants with a potential street value of nearly £100,000 were found growing in a small house in a quiet residential street.

Police broke down the door of the end-of-terrace property in Millhall, Aylesford, near Maidstone, and discovered three rooms upstairs had been converted into a drugs factory.

Each one was full of mature plants, watered by hosepipes and fed by a series of large 600W lamps hooked up to a timer system. The walls were lined with foil and windows and doors were blacked out.

A home-made ventilation system had also been rigged up to carry away hot air and tell-tale smells. There were 96 plants in the house, each worth a potential £1,000 to drug pedlars.

PC Richard Hall, of the West Kent Tactical Team which carried out the successful raid, said: “It’s more than we expected to find.

“We also found dried cannabis within the property and the outbuildings from where they’ve harvested it. It would appear production had been going on for some time.

“For us to enter a property with a warrant and find they have kitted out three entire bedrooms for the cultivation of cannabis, to seize it all, strip it down - you’re cutting off quite a big supply network.”

As well as the plants, officers discovered the electricity meter had been bypassed and mains electricity was being tapped.

Det Sgt Jon Armoy added: “They were in the process of clearing the downstairs. We think someone was going to live in the shed in the back garden and use the house as a cannabis factory.

“This is probably the largest one we have seen in the West Kent area for two or three months. It’s a good result.”

Tonbridge and Malling borough commander Ch Insp Martin Very said: “The warrant was very successful and we have prevented a significant amount of cannabis from getting onto the streets.”

No-one was in the house at the time of the raid. Police are continuing their investigations.