Ringleader jailed for £400,000 drug sites operation
The ringleader of a gang which grew £400,000 worth of drugs at three different cannabis factories, including one on the Shropshire border, has been jailed for nearly six years.
Andrew O'Donnell, 34, from Tenbury Wells, fled to Spain after being arrested in 2012 when the operation was uncovered, but he was later tracked down after an appeal on BBC's Crimewatch.
Gloucester Crown Court heard police discovered a sophisticated cannabis factory which had been set up underground in a garden at O'Donnell's Manor Farm in Tenbury Wells.
Officers found 220 cannabis plants there, with a street value of £109,000. The court heard they had been led there after raids at an industrial estate in Cinderford, Gloucestershire, where plants worth £184,000 were found, and the other on a farm near Monmouth, Wales, where plants were £120,000 were found.
Sentencing O'Donnell to five years and eight months in jail, Judge Jamie Tabor QC told him it was "a major drug production". O'Donnell had admitted conspiring to produce controlled drugs at the three locations.
One of his three henchmen, Robert Ockleton, 24, of Gloucester, was also in the dock and given two and a half years jail. He also admitted conspiracy to produce cannabis.
Mr Jason Coulter, for O'Donnell, said his client denied being the mastermind of the operation.
