FOUR men have been locked up, four months after police discovered a hugh cannabis factory.

A court heard yesterday how 7,000 plants and 1,000 cuttings were found when the former Bridge Communications building in Hall Road, Heybridge, was raided in November.

The street value of the drug would have been around £2million if the cannabis had been harvested, Chelmsford Crown Court was told.

Four Vietnamese nationals, all of no fixed adress, admitted producing the drug. They will be deported after serving their sentences.

The cannabis was of the powerful skunk variety, the court heard.

Judge Karen Walden-Smith said the four were “gardeners’’ at the lower end of the drugs chain.

Vue Ho, 22, was jailed for four years, eight months, Tran Le, 40, received four years, Ngugen Doan, 18, was sent to a young offenders’ institution for three years, eight months and Hung Tran, 44, was jailed for four years.