Waterford man jailed for concealing a cannabis grow house worth €360,000

A man in Waterford has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for his involvement in a gang which concealed a cannabis grow house worth an estimated €320,000.

A gang erected a “false wall” with a hidden door at an industrial unit in order to mask the mass growing house.

Keith Wilmot, of 13 Willow Park, Ashley Court, Cleaboy, Waterford City, had apparently grown bored of his quiet life as a doorman with no previous convictions and so had recently embarked on a “parallel life” in which he played a senior role in this major drugs operation.

This was no amateur operation - the unit, located in the Riverstown Industrial Estate in Tramore, had its own irrigation system and the gang had managed to bypass the main electrical supply without the utility provider becoming aware of heavy use according Garda John Murphy of Tramore's Drugs Unit who spoke in front of the Waterford Circuit Criminal Court this week.

Inside the unit were a whopping 340 cannabis plants, plus hydroponics to help the plants grow faster. Before you get excited, all of the plants were seized by Tramore Gardaí who raided the unit with the help of the Garda Armed Support Unit on January 18, 2019, under Section 26 of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

As if the evidence wasn't damning enough, Gardaí also confiscated his phone on which they found messages Wilmot sent to others involved in the gang to express his concern that Gardaí might be onto them and that they should consider moving the operation to a bigger unit.

He also reportedly offered to pay people €200 a day to help harvest the plants - not a bad gig if you can get it, eh?

A second man is due to appear before the court later this year in relation to the case.