Two men have appeared in court after a cannabis factory was discovered inside an empty shop unit in Banff that was previously used by M&Co.
A cultivation of illegal plants, believed to be worth £210,000, was seized from inside the empty commercial premises in the town’s High Street on Tuesday afternoon.
Eddison Stafalla, 34, of an address in Aberdeen, and 21-year-old Ergi Zani, from Harrow in England, were both arrested and charged with producing a controlled drug.
The pair, who appeared in private at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on Wednesday, made no plea or declaration, were committed for further examination and released on bail.
They will return to the dock on a date that is still to be confirmed.
Police called to vacant former M&Co shop unit on Tuesday
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “Around 1.40pm on Tuesday March 26, we were called to a report of a cannabis cultivation within a premises on High Street, Banff.
“Officers attended and two men, aged 3(4) and 21, were arrested and charged in connection with the discovery.”
Clothing retailer M&Co. closed all its branches UK-wide – axing nearly 2,000 jobs – after the business, formerly known as Mackays, fell into administrators at the end of 2022.
The brand was subsequently bought by AK Retail Holdings, which owns Yours Clothing.
However, the purchase did not include physical stores, meaning they were all closed down.
The company operated 14 stores across the north and north-east, with the closures causing dozens of redundancies.
The M&Co. shops were located in Aberdeen, Banff, Buckie, Dingwall, Elgin, Inverness, Inverurie, Kirkwall, Nairn, Peterhead, Stonehaven, Stornoway, Thurso, and Wick.
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