Police in the county of Wiltshire say they arrested six people during a midnight
raid on RGHQ Chilmark, an underground nuclear bunker built in the 1980s
to protect government officials and local dignitaries in case of a
nuclear attack.
While the site is no longer owned by the UK's Ministry of Defense, the
bunker is intact and the nuclear blast doors remain in place. After
receiving intelligence about the operation going on in the nearly
impenetrable bunker, police said they waited outside for three people to
leave and then detained them, using their keys to gain entry.
Inside, police said they found three more people, believed to be
operating as gardeners along with several thousand cannabis plants at
various stages of growth.
Detective Inspector Paul Franklin, of the Dedicated Crime Team said in a statement that
'there are approximately 20 rooms in the building, split over two floors, each 200 ft long and 70 feet wide. Almost every single room had been converted for the wholesale production of cannabis plants, and there was a large amount of evidence of previous crops. This was an enormous set up. At this early stage of the investigation it is almost impossible to work out how many plants are inside, but we are talking thousands rather than hundreds'.