Family who ran huge cannabis operation ordered to pay £1m

A FAMILY from the south of England who moved to an isolated house in west Wales to set up a huge £3.5m cannabis factory have been ordered to pay back more than £1m in ill-gotten gains.

- JASON EVANS

Edward and Linda McCann and their son Daniel moved from Hampshire to a secluded property with a large barn in Carmarthenshire which had been carefully chosen as a suitable base for their intended "commercial-scale" production and distribution centre.

The father and son were already running a successful cannabis operation in Hampshire when they decided to relocate across the border and expand their business.

After spending months searching for the right property, Daniel McCann bought the house in Cwmbach near Whitland in 2015 for £385,000.

The family ran their illicit business for five years until police uncovered what was going on, and it has been estimated that the value of the operation over that timeframe could have amounted to as much as £3.5m.

The McCanns were handed lengthy prison sentences in 2022 for their involvement in the cannabis conspiracy, and a proceeds of crime investigation was then launched. After multiple court hearings in the intervening years, the financial matters were resolved at Swansea Crown Court, but not before an unrepresented Edward McCann raised a series of issues with the prosecution case and asked when the police were going to return his wife's stockings and suspenders.

The court had previously heard that on October 23, 2020, police executed a search warrant at the McCanns' compound in Cwmbach. After forcing entry to a large outbuilding next to the detached house on the plot, officers found an "extremely well-organised and sophisticated cannabis-manufacturing operation".

This was comprised of six growing rooms on the ground floor equipped with lights and extractor fans, as well as a main working area with a commercial-size oven and a pressure-device for extracting oil from plants.