Empty high street department stores are getting a second life underground. Or rather, an illegal one. When Thames Valley Police officers forced entry into the abandoned BHS store on Slough's High Street, they didn't find clearance stock. They found an industrial-scale growing operation spanning two floors, packed with over 1,700 cannabis plants.
The numbers attached to this bust are staggering. Experts calculated the potential yield at roughly 150 kilograms, holding a street value of nearly £1.3 million and a wholesale value sitting at £525,000. Two men, 40-year-old Ajet Begu and 27-year-old Aryan Turya, found themselves caught inside the barricaded site when police raided it on January 28. Months later at Reading Crown Court, the reality of the operation caught up with them via 14-month prison sentences after they pleaded guilty to producing a Class B drug.
The Decay of High Streets and the Rise of Illegal Cultivation
Why choose a defunct department store? Simple physics and real estate economics. Ever since the massive retail chain collapsed into administration back in 2016, buildings like the Slough BHS branch have sat vacant. They offer massive internal square footage, thick concrete walls that muffle sound, minimal foot traffic from landlords, and plenty of space to set up high-intensity grow lights, ventilation tubes, and massive hydroponic systems.
Organized crime syndicates look at shuttered town centers and see low-risk industrial infrastructure. You don't get that kind of square footage easily in residential areas without raising immediate suspicions from neighbors noticing strange foot traffic or heavy utility usage. A boarded-up commercial property hiding in plain sight on a busy high street provides the perfect camouflage.
Inside the Slough Police Raid
The operation didn't happen by accident. Officers from the Chalvey, Upton and Slough Town Neighbourhood Policing Team, alongside the Berkshire East Neighbourhood Policing Team, caught wind that something shady was happening behind the locked doors.
When police breached the entrance at around 1:30 PM on that January afternoon, the scale of the interior took even seasoned veterans aback. Detective Constable George Randell from Berkshire East CID later called it an "incredible sight". Hundreds upon hundreds of plants sat in various stages of maturity across multiple levels of the building. Begu, from Palmers Green in north London, and Turya, of no fixed abode, were arrested right on the spot. They faced charges just two days later.
The Broader Impact on Local Communities
Incidents like this highlight a growing trend across UK towns and cities where empty retail spaces are repurposed for illicit farming. Local authorities and police forces are pushing back hard, but the sheer volume of vacant commercial real estate makes enforcement an ongoing challenge.
When criminals take over these buildings, they bring secondary issues like dangerous electricity meter bypasses—which routinely spark structural fires—and localized antisocial behavior tied to distribution networks. Thames Valley Police have made it clear that community intelligence plays a massive role in stopping these operations before they expand further. If utility bills at an abandoned commercial property spike inexplicably, or if strange odors and blacked-out windows appear, local reporting remains the fastest trigger for a police response.
The courts handed down a 14-month sentence to both men, but investigations into wider criminal network connections continue. Vacant retail hubs will keep attracting illicit operations until high street regeneration projects find permanent tenants to fill these hollowed-out concrete shells.
