Nathan Allen, 39, and Kyle Robinson, 33, were arrested as they worked in a network of shipping containers with £800,000 of cannabis buried beneath a farm
A drugs gang was busted after cannabis worth up to £800,000 was found in a sophisticated network of underground bunkers made from shipping containers – like the plot in Guy Ritchie’s film The Gentlemen.
Nathan Allen, 39, and Kyle Robinson, 33, were arrested in 2020 after receiving intelligence from Spain that a huge cannabis ring was operating 20ft beneath a farm. When they raided the site, officers not only found four containers buried underground but a number of livestock including 22 horses and a Llama.
In total there were more than 600 cannabis plants with a potential street value of up to £800,000. The operation mirrors the plot of Ritchie’s 2019 film The Gentlemen, starring Hugh Grant and Matthew McConaughey, in which underground drug farms were built beneath the estates of aristocratic landlords. It also inspired a spin-off Netflix series starring Theo James as the new Duke of Halstead.
Police raided Thorpe Farm at Skendleby, Lincolnshire, on September 3 2020 where Allen and Robinson were living. A shotgun attributed to Allen was also recovered. Allen, of Werrington Bridge Road, Peterborough, was today sentenced to two years imprisonment suspended for two years after he admitted conspiracy to produce and supply cannabis and possession of a firearm without a certificate.
He also admitted breaching a suspended sentence and was told he must complete 160 hours of unpaid work and 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days. Robinson, 33, of Willoughby Road, Alford, was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cannabis. He must also complete 160 hours of unpaid work. A third man, Tony Owen, 36, of Bretton, Peterborough, will be sentenced for his involvement on 15 December.
The court heard Robinson had pleaded guilty on a basis that he was initially employed to look after the animals on the farm and then switched to security of the grow but never entered the bunkers. Allen admitted playing a limited role in the grow because of a debt but said he only entered one bunker where he took a “selfie.”
Lincolnshire Police spent eight days searching the site after it was tipped off by the Guardia Civil that a drug operation was taking place at the farm. After discovering the entrances hidden in barns, officers found the four underground bunkers, the court was told.
Inside 12 containers used to make up the bunkers officers found over 600 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of up to £800,000. Neil Sands, mitigating for Allen, said he obviously had no influence on those higher up the chain.
Mr Sands told the court Allen had already spent nearly four months in jail.In mitigation the court was told Robinson had five children and had completely changed his life around since his limited involvement. Passing sentence Recorder Simon King accepted a considerable a period of time had passed since the discovery of the grow and that Robinson was now a “changed man.”
Recorder King told Allen he had admitted a greater involvement than Robinson but could avoid an immediate jail sentence by the “skin of his teeth”.
The investigation – known as Operation Industry – began with intelligence from Spain. “Spanish authorities and HMRC uncovered a sophisticated underground factory being used for a large-scale tobacco and cannabis production in Spain,” said Det Sgt Lee Papworth.
Information passed to Lincolnshire Police prompted them to focus on Thorpe Farm, where officers discovered a series of shipping containers buried beneath barns and accessed through concealed hatches.
Det Sgt Papworth said what they found was far from a small operation. He said “These were all fitted with lights, fans, air filters – everything you could possibly need to grow cannabis on a large commercial scale.”
“‘I’ve been in the force for 10 years and I’ve not seen anything like this, certainly to this scale,” added Det Sgt Papworth. “This one’s quite unique in the organisation that it needed and the resources they must have had.”
