Death inquiry led to drug find

7:10pm Wednesday 20th August 2008

A CANNABIS farm growing plants worth thousands of pounds was discovered by police investigating the fatal shooting of a 27-year-old North Yorkshire man.

The body of Martin Hall was found at an address in South Duffield, near Selby, and a subsequent post mortem found he died as a result of a gunshot wound – although the police are not treating the death as suspicious.

His funeral took place last Thursday.

But following investigations into his death, police discovered a hi-tech cannabis farm in the village, cultivating plants worth thousands of pounds.

A local man was arrested in connection with the cannabis factory and released on police bail pending further inquiries.

Sgt Kevin Brighton, of Selby Police, said that at this stage it was unknown what value the drugs would have had on the streets or if the cannabis was of the potent skunk strain.

He said forensic tests were being conducted and the results were due shortly.

However, he said it was a sophisticated farm, and such was the scale of the operation that it took six police officers all day to clear it of plants, lights and other growing equipment.

He added: “This is the first cannabis farm of this kind found in the Selby district for some time.

“However, this is a significant find and we are investigating it fully and dealing with any suspects robustly.

“Drugs will not be tolerated in the Selby area.”

The South Duffield raid comes only weeks after police officers uncovered York’s largest ever cannabis factory. CID officers recovered 246 cannabis plants from a house in the city’s Hob Moor Terrace.

If the drugs had hit the streets the streets they would have had a value of about £100,000.

That operation was also described as hi-tech, and thousands of pounds-worth of cultivation equipment was also seized in the raid.

A 51-year-old man and woman, aged 37, who are based in Hornsea, Humberside, were arrested in connection with that seizure.

Police are not linking the two raids.

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