Man jailed after more than 7,000 cannabis plants found in former Northampton town centre casino

Mantas Pipiras, of no fixed address, was sentenced at Northampton Crown Court on February 13, after he pleaded guilty to one count of producing a controlled drug of Class B - cannabis, on December 12, 2025.

The 36-year-old was arrested after he gave himself up to Northampton’s Neighbourhood Policing Team, who forced entry into the former Aspers casino, in Commercial Street, on October 30, 2025.

Officers found thousands of cannabis plants, at different stages of growth, across multiple floors and called it “one of the biggest cannabis factories in the county’s history”. Officers also said the set up was “very organised” with efforts made to “keep the police out” including bricked over doors and rooms reinforced with steel.

At the time, Northamptonshire Police thanked the local community for providing the intelligence the force needed to secure a warrant and “take down this criminal enterprise”.

Following the raid, Neighbourhood Policing Inspector Nic Davis-Lyons said: “Obviously, we’re really pleased to get this amount of drugs off the streets, but there’s another side to it that we need to focus on. A production on this scale involves a lot of organisation, and there will be an organised crime group behind it. Quite often, they traffic and exploit people into operations like this, probably under threat of violence, and that’s a side people don’t often see.”

Pipiras was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison and ordered to pay a £228 surcharged.

Judge Rebecca Crane also ordered the cannabis and production equipment to be forfeited and destroyed