Police teams across Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Powys tackling the threat presented by industrial scale cannabis farms have taken more than £12 million worth of cannabis out of the supply chain.

Raiding buildings from former schools and empty town centre shops to a disused newspaper office, Dyfed-Powys Police has successfully disrupted 37 commercial sized cannabis farms over the past year alone, with 35 people arrested for their involvement.

Proactive policing teams continue to gather and act on intelligence as part of Operation Scotney – a CID-led operation launched in response to the increasing number of cannabis factories being established by organised crime gangs.

Scotney has proven to be the force’s widest and most successful drugs operation to date, with cannabis worth over £12 million in street value seized and destructed, along with tonnes of commercial scale heating and lighting equipment.

Explaining how the operation came to be, Detective Chief Inspector Rich Lewis said: “Through proactive policing work taking place across the force, it came to our attention that a number of large scale cannabis factories were being discovered in seemingly unconnected areas. We’re talking about thousands of plants being seized during each warrant, which for us was highly unusual.

“It was established fairly quickly that these factories were in fact linked, in that the people we suspected to be responsible were believed to have been recruited by organised crime gangs from outside the force area, hoping to go undetected in our rural towns.

“Given the size of the factories and the quantities of cannabis being discovered, we knew we needed to take firm action, and so Operation Scotney was launched at the beginning of 2024.”

Led by the force’s Criminal Investigation Department, Operation Scotney sees detectives, intelligence experts and proactive policing officers work together to establish where the factories are being set up, and to swoop in and disrupt them before the cannabis grows can be cultivated.

Dyfed-Powys Police carried out the warrant at the former primary school in Llandysul on Friday, November 15, 2024 following reports from the public about suspicious activity there.
Dyfed-Powys Police carried out a warrant at the former primary school in Llandysul on Friday, November 15, 2024 following reports from the public about suspicious activity there. (DPP)

So far, 37 warrants have been executed in the four divisions, with tens of thousands of plants discovered; and over the course of a year, 35 people have been arrested and charged under Operation Scotney, with 29 of these jailed.

DCI Lewis explained that these factories are not being set up in hidden away places, where criminals can come and go undetected, but in public areas.

“What has been incredible, alongside the amount of cannabis we have discovered being grown, is the brazen approach those responsible have taken,” he continued.

“We’ve seen former schools, empty shops, and a former newspaper office used as cannabis factories, and a number of these were in town centres where it would be very difficult to go unnoticed. This led us to believe the gangs are using bold tactics such as disguising themselves as construction workers or landlords to enter and leave these buildings without raising suspicions.

“Their tactic was to hide in plain sight - who would suspect that someone wearing a high visibility vest carrying large boxes into a disused building in broad daylight could be setting up a cannabis factory?”