Three members of a family have pleaded guilty to running a multi-million pound cannabis production and supply business from a west Wales property specially selected for its secluded location.
Husband and wife Edward and Linda McCann and their adult son Daniel moved from Hampshire to an isolated Carmarthenshire house with a large barn where they worked with two local men, Jack Whittock and Justin Liles, on an "industrial scale" drugs operation. As well as producing and supplying cannabis, the conspiracy also involved using the crop to make products such as cannabis oil and cannabis-infused chocolate.
The defendants dramatically changed their pleas and admitted their parts in the operation on the second-day of their trial at Swansea Crown Court. In light of the guilty pleas the prosecution offered no evidence against the McCanns' daughter Samantha, and she was formally found not guilty.
Opening the case for the prosecution, barrister Ian Wright had told the court that on October 23, 2020, police executed a search warrant at an isolated property in the village of Cwmbach near Whitland in Carmarthenshire. He said officers forced entry to a large outbuilding next to a detached house on the plot and found a "sophisticated and well-organised cannabis production operation".
The ground floor of the barn had been divided into six growing room and a main growing area, and were rigged up with lights and extractor fans. In total there were some 202 plants of various stages of maturity from saplings in propagators to a large "mother" plant from which cuttings were taken. The upstairs of the barn was being used as a production area with a table and chairs, tools including secateurs, and clothes-horses on which harvested cannabis plants were being dried. The barrister told the court police also found a machine for sealing tins - tinned cannabis, he said, was an "emerging trend" in the UK as it kept the drug fresher and increased its longevity - along with equipment for extracting cannabis oil from cannabis plants, and an industrial-size oven with trays covered in cannabis residue. The power supply to the barn had been bypassed, and an armoured cable ran from the building directly to a electricity pole.
The court heard that in addition the plants the themselves - which had a potential value of up to £460,000 - officers also recovered around 80kg of "cannabis product" which was worth up to £1.5million.
Meanwhile a search of the house next to the barn uncovered £10,000 cash divided into individual £1,000 bundles in the front bedroom, and a cannabis-infused chocolate bar on the kitchen table. Read about a drug dealer who was running a "cottage industry" supplying a range of cannabis Oreo cakes and other "edibles" from his garden shed.
Mr Wright said it was the prosecution case that the defendants were involved in an "industrial-scale cannabis operation" producing not just the drug itself but products such cannabis oil, and "edibles". He said the remote property had been carefully selected by the McCanns after a considerable search, and that it "ticked all the boxes" in terms of being a good location for conducting the clandestine drug operation. Read about a dealer running a "cannabis shop" from his home who was rumbled after a postie sniffed out something was going on.
Edward McCann, aged 61, of Cwmbach, Whitland, Carmarthenshire; Linda McCann, aged 59, of Cwmbach, Whitland, Carmarthenshire; Daniel Edward McCann, aged 36, of Waterlooville, Hampshire; Justin James David Liles, aged 31, of St Clears, Carmarthenshire; and Jack Whittock, aged 28, of Llanteg, Narberth, Pembrokeshire all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce and supply cannabis between 2015 and 2020, and to acquiring criminal property namely cash when they were rearraigned before the jury. In addition Edward and Daniel McCann pleaded guilty to a separate conspiracy involving the production and supply cannabis in Hampshire between 2013 and 2015.
The jury was directed to find the defendants guilty of the charges, which it did
The prosecution barrister told the court that in the light of the pleas, no evidence would be offered against 25-year-old Samantha McCann from Bristol, and the jury was directed to find her not guilty.
Sentencing in the case was adjourned to a date to be fixed, and the court heard a Proceeds of Crime Act investigation is now underway.
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