A DETECTIVE involved in the bust of the biggest drugs factory in Wiltshire’s history says the nuclear bunker was “thick with the smell of cannabis”.

Speaking about the discovery of the huge cannabis factory in a nuclear bunker in Chilmark last night, Detective Inspector Paul Franklin of Wiltshire Police said: “The smell is what hits you first of all, even though there are extractor fans. The air is thick with it, and it is very odd.

“It is just like a bunker as you would expect, but each door we opened we found more plants.”

Kitchen and sleeping areas were also found in the underground bunker, where three men of no-fixed-address are understood to have stayed.

The site is currently cordoned off as police continue to deal with the situation.

DI Franklin said: “We have got the electric board with us to make it safe. We will take photographs and samples, and then take the cannabis plants and lights for assessment.

“It is going to take a couple of days to sort out.”

The crime was of such a nature that it took a “considerable criminal organisation” to run the factory, according to DI Franklin.

“You do not expect to come across this, and the time it takes to set up this kind of operation is considerable.

“You have to get compost and lighting and everything to make it work.”

Officers raided the building after waiting for several hours outside the bunker, gaining access when three men left and they arrested them, taking their keys.

Inside, was a forest of cannabis plans with a suspected value of more than £1m.

The bunker is now privately owned, but was built by the MoD with the purpose of sheltering government officials and dignitaries if the threat of a nuclear attack became real.