Drugs with a street value of more than £500,000 were seized in a police raid at a plant nursery in Danbury on Saturday.
Officers found 857 cannabis plants, along with cultivating equipment, knives and a sword in a rented outbuilding at Hyde Farm Nursery, Hyde Lane.
The afternoon raid was a special operation by the Chelmsford tactical team and involved 14 unarmed officers and two police dogs.
PC Jim Nash of the tactical team said the operation was only brought together a week before.
''It is a fantastic result, we were most impressed and happy with it. It is quite rare that we find these places. They can harvest and just disappear,'' he said.
As well as the plants, police recovered thousands of pounds worth of electronic equipment including sodium lights and machines to keep air circulating around the sealed building.
''The building was some sort of storeroom, but it was old and dilapidated and tucked out of the way in a corner,'' PC Nash added.
Two men, one who was Vietnamese, and a 15-year-old Vietnamese boy, were arrested at the scene on suspicion of being involved in the cultivation of cannabis.
On Sunday, two other men, one who was English and the other Vietnamese, were arrested in London.
Police have released two English men and one Vietnamese man on police bail until August 25 with the other two Vietnamese men handed over to the Immigration Service.
Published Thursday July 1, 2004
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