Incredible photos show abandoned nuclear bunker turned into a £2MILLION-a-year weed farm as three men are jailed (13 Pics)

The 20-room Cold War building was originally built to protect key government officials in the event of a nuclear attack

THREE crooks who ran a multi-million pound cannabis factory in an abandoned Cold War nuclear bunker were  caged for a combined total of 18 years.

The Wiltshire factory – found during a midnight police raid in the former government property following a month of covert surveillance – was set to flood the streets with £2million worth of the drug each year.

A police officer examines the nuclear blast doors at the bunker where three men ran a multi-million pound cannabis factory

Cops found more than 4,000 plants spread across 20 rooms at the abandoned Cold War bunker

Ross Winter, 30, was handed a five-year term for his role in the criminal enterprise

Martin Fillery, 45, who was caged for seven years, began the operation after being inspired by a screenplay he wrote

Plamen Nguyen, 27, is now facing five years behind bars for growing the Class B drug

Officers found 4,425 cannabis plants in the bunker, spread across 20 rooms, as well as 6,500 “used” plants, with some crops already harvested and dried.

Detective Inspector Simon Pope, of Wiltshire Police, called it an “enormous and sophisticated” operation, which was set to become  “a highly profitable criminal enterprise”.

Martin Fillery, 45, Plamen Nguyen, 27, and Ross Winter, 30, all admitted conspiring to produce the class B drug and abstracting electricity.

Fillery, who also admitted money laundering, was jailed for eight years today at Salisbury Crown Court, Wilts, while Nguyen and Winter were handed five years each.

The 20-room building was originally built in the 1980s by the Ministry of Defence, and designed to be impenetrable to anyone without a secret key in order to protect government officials and dignitaries in the event of a nuclear attack.

In order to keep the factory up and running, the men had bypassed mains electricity into the site, subsequently illegally abstracting approximately £650,000 worth of electricity.

Police had staked out the building in Wiltshire for nearly a month before raiding the property

A staggering total of 6,500 used plants was uncovered by officers at the building – originally designed to house key officials in a nuclear attack

Detective Inspector Simon Pope said: ‘This investigation has been a significant undertaking by Wiltshire Police into a highly profitable criminal enterprise and I am delighted all the hard work has paid off.’

Cops staked out the RGHQ Chilmark bunker, near the village of Chilmark, Wilts, until the three men left the building.

When they raided on February 22 this year they found three Vietnamese men “locked in” to a room in the bunker who “worked as gardeners”.

A fourth Vietnamese man who hid from police in an air-shaft was arrested in a nearby village the following day.

Three of the men have now been deported, and the fourth is appealing the deportation order, the court heard.

The 20-room compound had living quarters for the farm’s growers

The hidden away cannabis farm could produce £2million of product annually

The secure bunker was fitted with blast doors meaning cops had to ambush criminals

Abandoned military buildings at RGHQ Chilmark opposite the bunker

The idyllic village of Chilmark seemed an unusual place for a criminal enterprise