The process of clawing back the profits made on a drug farm of industrial proportions has begun, as a preparation for a proceeds of crime hearing took place at Swansea Crown Court today.
Married couple Edward and Linda McCann, aged 62 and 60, as well as their son Daniel, 37, were all jailed last year for setting up a sophisticated cannabis factory in rural Carmarthenshire, which is estimated to have brought in £4.3m during a five-year period.
Hired hands Jack Whittock, High Street, Narberth, and Justin Liles, of Glasfryn, St Clears, were handed shorter prison sentences for their role in the operation.
On October 23, 2020, police executed a drugs warrant at a remote property at Blaenllain in Cwmbach, near Whitland, where the McCanns lived.
They uncovered a large-scale and sophisticated set-up in a barn, which saw them produce herbal cannabis, cannabis resin and cannabis oil.
During the raid, Linda McCann, Liles, of Glasfryn, St Clears, and Whittock, of High Street, Narberth, were arrested in the barn.
Edward McCann was found in the house on the same site, while Daniel McCann, of Highcroft Lane, Horndean, Waterlooville, who owned the property near Whitland and was identified from CCTV at the premises. He was arrested in Portsmouth on February 15, 2021.
During the warrant, officers identified six purpose-built rooms downstairs in the barn which contained cannabis plants at various stages of growth.
Upstairs in the barn there was a number of clothes horses which were being used to dry out cannabis and several plastic bags and boxes containing large quantity of herbal cannabis.
The plants in the barn had a potential value of up to £460,000, while officers also recovered around 80kg of cannabis products worth up to £1.5million.
A search of the house uncovered £10,000 cash in a bedroom and a cannabis-infused chocolate bar on the kitchen table.
After all defendants had been sentenced at Swansea Crown Court last year, Dyfed-Powys Police chief inspector, Rhys Jones, said: “We will seek to remove their ill-gotten gains through the proceeds of crime act.”
Judge Geraint Walters, sitting at Swansea Crown Court this morning heard that there were incomplete responses to a proceeds of crime statement of information from Edward and Linda McCann, and no response in respect of Daniel.
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Matt Lefteris, representing Daniel, said that there had been some minor disagreements to the value of minor items, including a lawn mower.
Yasin Patel, representing Edward McCann, said it was anticipated that he would require an expert report.
Judge Walters agreed to this but reminded the court that he had already sentenced the McCanns for an industrial cannabis operation.
“Am I going to be asked to contradict myself at a proceeds of crime hearing?” he said.
Mr White for the Crown said that there was a ‘real concern that the defendant is asking for a second bite at the cherry’ on something that had already been resolved.
Judge Walters set the next hearing date for March 24. By this time, he said, there should be time for any expert report to have been handed to the prosecution and for the prosecution to respond.
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