'Recorder William Davis QC jailed the two men for two years'
Northampton
August 1
A strong smell of cannabis near homes in Northampton town centre led police to send up the force helicopter which spotted the heat bloom rising from the lights of a drugs factory.
Two Vietnamese-born men, who admitted running the £14,000 cannabis production plant from a property in The Mounts, were each jailed for two years.
Northampton Crown Court heard how Man Bao Sam, aged 40, and 33-year-old San Khong were arrested when the heat generated by the lights used to nurture their lucrative plants was spotted by the helicopter's thermal imaging camera.
Pearl Willis, prosecuting, said officers raided the property in Margaret Street at 2am on October 30 and discovered three rooms being used to cultivate the class A drug.
As well as lights, trays, plant pots and fertiliser, they discovered almost 250 plants at varying stages of growth, two kilos of cannabis and 156 infant plants at Khong's home. Recorder William Davis QC jailed the two men for two years after Sam, of Margaret Street, The Mounts, and Khong, of Bidders Close in Northampton town centre, pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to cultivate and produce cannabis in October last year,
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