ANTON: WE DIDN’T KNOW WE WERE STANDING ON A DRUGS FACTORY

Six people accused of helping to run an underground drugs factory guarded with guns and petrol bombs had no idea what was going on beneath their feet, they claimed today.

The gang are said to have worked on Britain’s most sophisticated cannabis factory which was housed in shipping containers buried underneath a portacabin.

Jaguar-driving site owner John Reilley, 46, has admitted producing cannabis as well as possessing illegal firearms and ammunition.

Site security guard and ‘trusted lieutenant’ Georghe Anton, 49, and office worker Lisa Shortall, 29, are among those accused of helping to produce the drug, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

They are standing trial alongside Rory McEleavey, 22, and Romanian nationals Ionel Lazar, 22; Bogden Oncioiu, 23; Christian-Mircea Lungu, 39, and Georghe Anton, 49.

All have denied knowledge of the drugs operation, with most saying they were working at what they thought was a landfill site for a few hundred pounds per week.

Steven Pidcock, representing Lisa Shortall, said ‘there is no evidence’ to convict the office worker, who banked £125,000 in weeks on behalf of Reilly’s failing company Express Auctions.

‘It’s a landfill site and a business man driving round in a brand new Jaguar.’

‘There isn’t any proper evidence to convict Ms Shorthall apart from inference upon inference upon inference,’ he said.

The jury heard that Romanian national and alleged ‘right hand man’ Anton was employed as a ‘basic security guard’ at the landfill site at just £60 for each 17 hour day.

‘That was £3.60 an hour, below the minimum wage for anyone, let alone a lieutenant, let alone a right hand man,’ said his lawyer, Margaret Bankole.

‘You may think he did it deliberately, he employed someone who could not speak English, and the reason probably he did that was so that Mr Anton was unaware of what was going on and could not ask too many questions.’

The court has heard the complex in Arnolds Fields in Rainham, Essex, even had its own sleeping quarters.

It was protected by guard dogs and a cache of weapons including a Kalashnikov rifle, shotguns and petrol bombs, jurors heard.

Police raided the site on 22 February last year, and found a trapdoor in a portacabin leading to a ‘fully functional cannabis factory’ made of five buried shipping containers containing 297 cannabis plants.

Two similar bunkers were found, one of which appeared to be about to go into production and another from which cannabis had apparently recently been harvested.

Nearly £20,000 in cash was recovered together with two handguns, one of which was stored inside a paper tray of the photocopier, an imitation gun and a stash of ammunition.

An AK-47 assault rifle, a handgun and two sawn off shotguns were in another container, and three primed petrol bombs and a supply of petrol were also found in one of the sleeping areas.

The office had £14,500 in cash on a desk, plus another £3,780 in a safe, as well as a computer showing online research into setting up a cannabis factory from 2010, and purchases of equipment including high wattage light bulbs from Ebay.

Shortall, of South Road, South Ockendon, and McEleavey, of (flat 8) Pine House, Gorse Ave, Chatham, Kent, deny producing cannabis between 1 July 2010 and 22 February 2011.

Lazar, Oncioiu, Anton and his son-in-law Lungu, all of whom were apparently living at the site, deny the same charge.

Reilly, of Stepney Green Court, Stepney, east London admits eight charges of producing cannabis and possessing firearms and ammunition.

The trial continues.

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