On Crete, Greek drug investigators have discovered a large cannabis plantation with more than 1,100 plants on the cordoned-off site of a monastery west of the port city of Heraklion.

The perpetrators, who are still being sought, cut through the fence and created escape and supply routes in a highly professional manner, the newspaper To Proto Thema reported on Wednesday. They even created a pond to water the plants. According to the police, this year's harvest of the plants would have yielded around one ton and had a market value of around two million euros.

Large cannabis plantations are being discovered again and again on Crete, and in some places there are drug barons and clans who defend remote areas with force of arms, so that not even the police dare to go there. However, the Greeks were particularly indignant about the use of a monastery property - some plants were even hung with prayer beads. Some of the perpetrators are said to have posed as pilgrims in order to gain access to the plants on the monastery property.