Secret tunnels and stolen power have been uncovered as police unravel a sophisticated cannabis growing operation linked to a top fashion designer.
Jason Crawford, 35, from the Insidious Fix clothing label has appeared in the Auckland District Court charged with cultivating cannabis and allowing a premises to be used for the purpose of cannabis cultivation.
Police and lines company Vector spent Wednesday at the site of the bust and made some astonishing discoveries.
Vector found a transformer which it believes may be drawing power from the local network and feeding it into the cannabis cultivation operation, and possibly into the Insidious Fix factory.
Vector says they have a lot of work to do to establish how much power has allegedly been taken and over what period.
On Wednesday police also discovered a secret tunnel in the building used by Insidious Fix, which adjoins the warehouse where the drugs were found.
Detective Sergeant Dave Nimmo says the tunnel is large enough to allow one person to crawl through.
"Some work's gone in to put the tunnel in place, the block work has been cut out," says Nimmo.
The hidden accessway runs underneath the designer factory shop and into a busy, messy workroom which looks as though it contains several props used for fashion shows.
Insidious Fix director Jason Crawford is the technical expert behind the label. He and his business partner Kylee Davis are so well regarded they received a $16,000 travel award from Air New Zealand at last year's fashion week along with $8,000 in government trade grants.
Davis is not commenting about Crawford's arrest, except to her lawyer.
Her staff, who work just a wall away from the drugs find, have all been told to stay home. Police say they won't need to interview them, but they do still intend to lay charges against two or three other people.
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