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POLICE have stumbled on yet another cannabis factory in the town centre – this time housing 700 plants worth an estimated £50,000.

And Macclesfield’s top cop has admitted there could be more weed farms in Silk Town, and said they will now deploy a plane with thermal imaging equipment in a bid to find them.

This latest find provides further evidence of Macclesfield’s growing reputation as a major centre of cannabis cultivation in Britain.

And this is making police more determined than ever to continue their war on the town’s drug trade.

Like the £2million marijuana factory discovered on Bridge Street in April, it was fire and police teams attending a routine call at premises above a Chinese takeaway on Park Lane, on Saturday (June 14), who uncovered the latest operation.

Emergency services were scrambled to the One Two Three eatery at 10.15am, to tackle a chip pan fire.

When they arrived and searched the building, the cops and firefighters found the plants in the premises above, along with highly sophisticated lighting and heating equipment.

The discovery comes less than a month after Chinese illegal immigrant, Ah Tong Lin, was jailed for two years for cultivating a class C drug – cannabis – at a farm in Kettleshulme.

And it is just two months since the house containing 17,000 plants was discovered on Bridge Street.

Inspector Gareth Woods, head of Macclesfield Neighbourhood Policing Unit, said: "There are potentially more cannabis factories out there, and we will do whatever we can to find them."

He said he now wants to deploy the Cheshire Constabulary plane – fitted with thermal imaging equipment – to find where the weed may be growing.

The special camera identifies large heat sources – known as "hot spots" – in buildings, which are needed to cultivate cannabis properly.

Insp Woods added: "Whether local residents express concerns and pass on information that we can use to make arrests, or whether we use the thermal imaging equipment on the constabulary planes we will find them."

Fire teams battled the chip pan blaze for five hours on Park Lane on Saturday, with hoses, breathing apparatus, and special extraction equipment before making the area safe. No arrests have been made in relation to the cannabis factory at the time of going to press.

Crime scene investigators began gathering and crunching data this week.

Anyone with information about this operation, or any other drug activity in Macclesfield, call the Neighbourhood Policing Unit on 0845 4586371, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.