Two individuals involved in cultivating cannabis have been sentenced to prison after plants with an estimated street value of £1.3 million were discovered growing inside a disused BHS store in Slough.
Ajet Begu, 40, and Aryan Turya, 27, received jail terms after the illicit grow house was found operating covertly within the former retail premises.
The extensive drug operation was dismantled on 28 January when neighbourhood policing teams forced entry into the vacant store on Slough High Street, having identified it as a suspected cannabis factory. Thames Valley Police officers subsequently uncovered hundreds of plants concealed within the former BHS outlet.
Investigators discovered over 1,700 cannabis plants at various stages of maturity, indicating a continuous production cycle. Both Begu and Turya were present inside the factory at the time of their arrest.
The cultivated plants had the potential to yield approximately 150 kilograms (23 stone 9 pounds) of drugs. According to an expert in drug valuation, the street value of the haul was estimated at £1,288,020, with a wholesale value of £525,000.
Investigating officer Detective Constable George Randell commented: "Following our hard work, Ajet Begu and Aryan Turya have been sentenced for their involvement in the production of more than £1m-worth of cannabis in the former BHS store in Slough."
He added: "It was an incredible sight for my colleagues when they discovered the hundreds of cannabis plants in the factory that was spread over two floors, all hidden behind the seemingly disused building. Our intervention no doubt had a significant impact on those producing and supplying cannabis in Slough and wider, but we are continuing to investigate the cannabis factory’s links to organised crime."
Begu, from Palmers Green, London, and Turya, who was of no fixed abode but believed to reside in London, both pleaded guilty to producing a controlled Class B drug, namely cannabis, at Reading Magistrates’ Court.
Both men were subsequently sentenced to one year and two months in prison at Reading Crown Court on 21 August.
This incident follows another recent case in Slough, where a Royal Mail worker, Amjad Ali, 50, was apprehended after amassing over £1.2 million from drugs he pilfered from parcels. Ali had diverted packages believed to contain cannabis to himself. Police raided his home and a storage facility he used to manage his drug enterprise.