CANNABIS thought to be worth tens of thousands of pounds on the street has been found in a Colchester flat.

PC Lee Westby was called to Jubilee Court, off Clarendon Way, with colleagues on an unrelated matter.

He said: “I smelt cannabis coming from a one-bedroom flat and we got a warrant and entered at about 6.40am.”

PC Westby was amazed to discover what appeared to be a fully-fledged factory to produce cannabis.

With the exception of the bathroom, every room had been adapted for the purpose of growing the class B drug.

Kitchen cupboards had been turned into a nursery for the seedlings and the bedroom had been gutted and transformed into a large-scale hydroponics system to develop the plants.

Once grown, the plants were harvested and put in hanging baskets in the kitchen and bedroom to dry, ready to be sold.

PC Westby said: “Any value would depend on all the plants fully developing, but I would guess the find to be worth tens of thousands of pounds.

“This is all part of the ongoing battle against the supply, use and cultivation of drugs within Colchester and we will not stop here.”

* A man in his late thirties has been arrested on suspicion of the cultivation of cannabis and possession of drugs.

He was still being questioned by police last night.