Hunt continues for bosses of £1.2 million cannabis farm after huge Sheffield raid

Officers found 1,200 plants being cultivated in a former social club in Darnall, which had been converted into a cannabis factory.

Officers raided the property on The Avenue, Darnall, just behind Main Road, yesterday.

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The building used to be The Green Social Club but is now home to Darnall Community Centre and a gym.

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Detective Inspector Andy Shields said officers found ‘a labyrinth of rooms, crammed full of cannabis plants of varying maturity’.

The raid was carried out as part of Operation Fortify, aimed at tackling serious organised crime in South Yorkshire.

Almost a year ago to the day three men were jailed over a £1 million cannabis farm found in Darnall.

It was concealed inside a disused steel plant, which drug den bosses pretended was in the process of renovation.

But when officers searched the former plant – known as Darnall Works – in March last year, they found a ‘professional, sophisticated set-up,’ where over 1,000 cannabis plants were being grown in a number of rooms hidden behind wooden boards.

Last July, three Albanian men found at the drug den were sentenced after pleading guilty to the production of cannabis.

Muhamet Istrefaj, 45, of no fixed abode, Ermal Qose, 34, of no fixed abode and Festim Perzhilla, 33, of no fixed abode, were each jailed for two years.