Fashion leader on dope-growing charge

A fashion-label owner has been charged with cultivating cannabis after police uncovered a "huge and sophisticated" drug operation in the factory housing his clothing company.

Jason Campbell Crawford, of Insidious Fix clothing, has been charged with cultivating cannabis and allowing a premises to be used for the purpose of cannabis cultivation.

The 35-year-old appeared in the Auckland District Court yesterday.

He was granted bail and will appear in court again next month.

Police raided an Onehunga warehouse on Monday and discovered mature cannabis plants and "heads" allegedly worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Seedlings and about 250 fully mature plants, growing in a mainly hydroponic operation, were found in different rooms, with concealed internal access via a manhole from the basement to another level upstairs.

A quantity of what is believed to be methamphetamine and a cross-bow were also discovered in the warehouse, police say.

Lawyer Gary Gotlieb, representing Crawford, said Insidious Fix operated out of the same factory but had no link to the area where the cannabis was found.

"He's got some items and things on his property which are not that flash but they're not major charges. But [police] are trying to lump him in with all this next door."

Detective Sergeant Dave Nimmo said the drug-growing operation was huge and sophisticated.

"The cannabis plants range in size from seedlings to fully grown trees, so we've got a fair bit of product to move," he said.

Police expected to make further arrests and yesterday executed a search warrant at 10 Gloucester Park Rd, which is adjacent to the warehouse in Selwyn St and the business premises of Insidious Fix.

Police said they found equipment that could be used to set up a plant nursery. They did not make any arrests but Mr Nimmo said the investigation was continuing.

The 10-year-old clothing label featured in last month's Air New Zealand Fashion Week, with Crawford and business partner Kylee Davis taking a curtain-call on mini chopper bikes.

The knitwear label burst onto the fashion scene when Crawford and Davis, then studying textile design at the Auckland Institute of Technology, won the Benson & Hedges Supreme Fashion Award in 1995.

Insidious Fix was awarded a trade and export award worth $16,000 at last year's Fashion Week.

Leila Neale, of neighbouring business Libra Woodwork, said she had not noticed anything suspicious at the warehouse.

"We never thought of anything else. It was just a clothing factory."