Vietnamese man, 51, arrested for growing cannabis in Tai Po

A 51-year-old Vietnamese man was arrested late Tuesday after he was found to have cultivated cannabis plants inside a village house in Kau Lung Hang in Tai Po area.

According to news website HK01.com, the police's Tai Po district special duties squad collected intelligence on the illegal cannabis farm in Tai Po about a month ago.

Officers stormed the village house at about 9:45 pm and seized around 1,700 cannabis plants estimated to be worth at least HK$40 million.

The three-storey building, which has total floor space of 2,100 square feet, was raided after a month-long investigation.

While police officers are still gathering evidence from the scene, it is believed that the cannabis at the site was mainly targeted for retail sales in the New Territories, Apple Daily reports.

Tuesday's action marked the biggest raid by the narcotics team in the last decade in Hong Kong.

Authorities are continuing to investigate possible leads to determine who else may have been involved in the cannabis operation.

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