It’s an open secret in the poker world that many players are aficionados of “the devil’s lettuce”, but it’s rare to find a casino full of the stuff. That was the scene UK police faced on Oct 30 in Northampton.
To be fair, the casino in question wasn’t actively operating at the time. The building where police found a cannabis grow-op that was described by one local 30-year veteran police officer as “the biggest cannabis factory that I have been involved in” was formerly a part of the Aspers Casino chain with locations around the UK.
Aspers went into administration earlier this year, which is essentially the UK equivalent of bankruptcy. Administrators from FTI Consulting were appointed on April 8 to deal with the financial situation of Aspers UK Holdings Limited, Aspers Group Limited, Aspers Finance Limited, and Aspers Milton Keynes Limited.
“Biggest Cannabis Factory” Says Veteran Officer
Among the properties sold as administration approached was Aspers’ Northampton. The building was thought to be empty, but local residents tipped police to suspicious activity around 9 a.m. on Oct 30.
Once police got inside, after some resistance from “the suspected organised crime gang” thought to be running the place, they found what Sgt Rodney Williams, a veteran of the Northampton police for 30 years, described as much bigger than anything he’d seen before.
“I’ve been involved in Northampton Police for 30 years and in that time as a frontline police officer, this is way above the biggest cannabis factory that I have been involved in,” he said.
Insp Nicola Davis-Lyons from Northamptonshire Police elaborated to ITV News. “We knew the size of the building, so we had an idea it was going to be quite a large operation here.
“Getting in itself was not easy; efforts had been made to keep the police out of the venue, so we had to use specialist officers to gain entry in the first place. Then, when you go in and see that amount of cannabis – it’s not something you see every day.
“The organisation that has gone into this is quite astronomical,” she added.
Ownership Questions
Shortly after the Aspers group went into administration, the Northampton property was sold off, but it’s unclear who owned the property at the time of the bust. Insp Davis-Lyons pointed to criminal gangs as running the operation, but gave no information about ownership at the time. “A cannabis set-up with this amount of organisation, there’s an organised criminal group that has set this up.”
It is known that the former owner of the Aspers Northampton property, Dominic Rossookh, applied to open a new casino in Northampton just a month after the administration action. As reported by the Northampton Chronicle on May 9, Rossookh submitted an application to convert a Daventry bank building into a new 24/7 casino.
Daventry is a small community just outside of Northampton, so the ties to the local area are still tight. Rossookh said, “We will bring the building back to its very best, becoming a landmark building in Daventry once again. We will also be providing jobs and facilities to local people. We will endeavour to buy local produce and support other businesses local to us. We will also make regular charity donations.”
The Daventry Town Council (DTC) had other ideas. They issued a statement that read in part, “The proposed change of use would have a detrimental impact on the vitality and viability of the local area and its amenities.“
The Northampton facility where the cannabis factory was found doesn’t look to have been operating as a casino since October of 2024. In another article on the closure of the old Aspers building, the Chronicle reported that Rossookh bought and sold the facility within a five-week period shortly after the closure.
A firm called 1st and Last Gaming Events was the other side of that sale deal, but they were unable to reopen the facility. It’s unclear what happened with ownership after that.
The news on this case is still breaking, but police have arrested and named at least one suspect in the operation. According to the Northampton Chronicle, Mantas Pipiras, of no fixed address, has been arrested and charged with the production of a Class B controlled drug.
poker.pro will update the story as more details become available.
