Cannabis factory in abandoned Rome metro tunnel

[John Ashworth]

Italy police discover cannabis factory in Rome tunnel

14 August 2012 Last updated at 18:03 GMT BBC

Police in Rome have sniffed out a cannabis factory in an abandoned metro tunnel built during the rule of Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, in the 1930s.

Officers reportedly stumbled across the factory after smelling the pungent crop near an entrance, not far from the Italian central bank.

The tunnel, just over half a mile (1km) long, was also being used to cultivate mushrooms.

But behind a makeshift wall, police discovered rows of marijuana plants.

Video released by Italy's financial police showed an underground greenhouse with thriving marijuana plants lit by halogen lights, and irrigated via a system of underground cisterns.

There were also special chambers for drying and processing the crop.

'Incredibly strong'

Italy's financial police said the find was among their biggest ever seizures of cannabis - a total of 340kg of the drug with an estimated street value of 3m euros (£2.3m; $3.7m).

According to Italy's Il Messaggero newspaper, some 900 plants were being cultivated across half a hectare in the tunnel.

The discovery of the illegal factory, some seven metres below the city, took place near in south-eastern Rome on Saturday. The farm's owner, a man in his fifties, has been arrested.

"We were carrying out checks when, from below - where we later uncovered the entrance to the tunnel - we smelled the incredibly strong and unmistakable smell of marijuana," police chief Stefano Corsi told Il Messaggero.

Police suspect that the farm may have been part of a larger operation involving more than a dozen people and supplying the drug across the country, the paper reports.

[Nathan Berelowitz]

Probably was the original "High" speed line!