HASH FARM GEAR WILL HELP FEED AFRICA

Charity To Send UKP200,000 Haul

STACKED high in a secret location lies a haul of equipment seized
from multimillion-pound cannabis farms.

But in the next week, the heating, lighting and plant cultivation
equipment will be heading to farms, schools and hospitals in Malawi.

And the Daily Record has had exclusive access to see the
UKP200,000-worth of fans, lights, ventilators, tubing, filters,
pumps, hoses, cables, plant pots and trays seized by Strathclyde Police.

Their director of intelligence, Detective Chief Superintendent
Stephen Whitelock, thought it would be a shame to see the equipment
thrown on a tip.

So he called staff at Glasgow the Caring City charity.

Now it will help thousands of people in Africa.

The Reverend Neil Galbraith, who runs the Cultivation to Cultivation
project, has suffered a few jokes but it will really change lives in Africa.

He said: "This is the first time anything like this has ever happened.

"I have been laughed at when I told people about it. And, because of
what it is, we cannot let anybody know where it is stored - the
crooks want it all back.

"We had to sanitise a lot of it because it was covered in cannabis dust."

Some of the first people to benefit will be mums and babies at Bottom
Hospital in Lilongue, Malawi, who will be cooled by huge new fans.

Fans and lighting will also go to classrooms, which will soon have
furniture given by South Lanarkshire Colleges.

The equipment will help thousands of people, say World Emergency
Relief, who assist the Glasgow charity.

Operations director Alex Haxton said: "They will be able to grow
better crops, new crops, food for day-today living and sell the
surplus at local markets. It could change their lives."

Farm adviser Francisco Naude said: "These farmers and their families
will benefit tremendously."

And the good news is - there is more on the way from cannabis farm raids.

FOR more info, visit glasgowthecaringcity.com or wer-uk.org