Jail for boss of drug factory where boy plunged to his death

Jun 25 2009 by Shirley Bartynek, Hamilton Advertiser

A CANNABIS-grower caught after a schoolboy plunged to his death through the roof of his Lanarkshire-based factory has been jailed for five years.

Thomas McCulloch's £3.6 million operation was found when paramedics arrived to find Dean Cannon lying in the warehouse.

The 15-year-old had fallen 30 feet into the premises at Garrion Business Park, Wishaw.

Police found 2000 cannabis plants which could have produced £600,000 of the drug.

One detective told a jury that it was one of the “largest cultivations” he had seen.

McCulloch was found guilty of acting with another in being concerned in the production of cannabis between December 1, 2005, and September 17, 2006.

Judge John Beckett QC told the 51-year-old he had been involved in an “extremely large and sophisticated drugs operation” as he returned to the High Court in Glasgow to be sentenced.

He added: “You knowingly allowed your premises to be used for cultivation on a grand scale.”

A trial heard how police discovered sophisticated equipment to help grow a new crop almost six-times-a-year... creating a potential £3.6million of herbal cannabis.

As well as insulation, a full two-storey self-contained timber building had been constructed within the factory to prevent heat being noticed by infra-red detection on the police helicopters.

Detective constable Andy Docherty said: “We are talking expertise of the highest level. It was one of the largest cannabis cultivations in Strathclyde, if not the largest.”

The court heard that when Dean - a fourth-year pupil at Clyde Valley High School in Wishaw - had been playing on the roof with friends when he fell to his death.

McCulloch, Greenlaw Avenue, Wishaw, was in Ireland at the time of the incident and later denied any involvement in the cannabis factory when quizzed.

He claimed that he rented the premises as a base for a mobile car valeting business, and had sub-let it to two men in March, 2006, before giving up the building months later.

He denied ever seeing plants, equipment or noticing any suspicious smells.

McCulloch had also been charged with being concerned in the supply of cannabis, but that charge was found not proven.

Tony Graham, defending, claimed that McCulloch was an “ordinary man” who was not a “master criminal or drug dealer”.