Jail for man who helped set up cannabis farm

A MAN who helped set up a “cannabis farm” at Warrington shouted and struggled with two women dock officers when he was jailed for three and-a-half years.
Raymond Mooney, 47, shouted: “I never had anything to do with it” and had to be restrained by the two women before being taken to the cells.
Mooney, from Leigh Road, Leigh, pleaded guilty at Warrington Crown Court to being concerned in the production of cannabis.
The court was told the “farm” – in a railway arch in Crown Street, Warrington, produced drugs worth £18,000.
Simon Medland, prosecuting, said Mooney had carried out odd jobs in the premises for the occupier, John Radford. This included building partition walls so it could be divided, with the front resembling an office while the rear section was a climate controlled area for cannabis plants to grow in.
When police raided the premises they found 722 cannabis plants, equating to 16 kilograms of skunk cannabis worth about £18,000.
They also found cigarette butts with Mooney’s DNA on them and it also emerged that Mooney had a string of previous convictions against his name dating back to when he was just 11 years old. He and Radford had been prosecuted by Portuguese officials last year for attempting to smuggle cocaine into the country and Mooney had received a two-year sentence suspended for three years.
Anthony Rose, defending, said Mooney’s role in the cannabis farm were not connected with cultivating the drug. He now realised the affect drugs had on him and others, and indeed had joined a drug rehabilitation programme of his own accord.
Judge Nicholas Woodward told Mooney: “The basis of your plea shows you were concerned with the production of a cannabis farm.”