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A high-ranking Hawke’s Bay detective is warning commercial property owners to be mindful of their tenants after police uncovered a large cannabis growing operation in a suburb of Hastings.

Officers discovered 216 nearly mature plants when they raided a leased building in Orchard Rd, Camberley, on Thursday morning.

The estimated street value of the plants was between $600,000 and $750,000.

A look at inside the grow operations before police removed the plants. Photo / Eastern District Police

Detective Inspector Marty James said it was one of the biggest cannabis-growing operations he had seen in Hawke’s Bay.

“As you can see, there’s a significant amount of product here, a rather large-scale commercial operation,” he said.

“There’s just over 200 well-propagated, well-produced plants. You can see they’re coming into production now.”

James said inside the building were three different rooms used for growing, with 72 plants in each room, at different stages of growth.

What remains of the grow operation in a commercial building in Hastings. Photo / Jack Riddell

James said Hawke’s Bay police were seeing this kind of activity more often and warned property owners to be “more mindful about who your tenants are, and what are they actually doing in your buildings?”

The property had been leased three months earlier and the alleged perpetrators had built the rooms, and a loft, to grow the plants in that time, he said.

“Clearly, these guys have modified the building, put in a mezzanine floor, filled it up with their equipment,” James said.

“This is a huge cost to build it, and it wasn’t here three months ago.”

James said he believed police had busted the operation right before the growers were able to harvest their first crop.

There was also evidence at the property to suggest the growers were “stealing” electricity to power lights and fans to aid the growing process, he said.

How the grow operation was powered. Police say they assume the growers were stealing power. Photo / Jack Riddell

James said two men, aged 45 and 49, had been arrested after Thursday’s discovery and charged with cultivating cannabis.

They are both due to appear in the Hastings District Court on September 12.

A man who lived nearby, who did not wish to be named, said he had no idea anything suspicious was happening in the commercial building.

“I go past here every day, had no idea about it,” he said.

“Desperate times, eh?”

Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier.