Tyrone cannabis factory accused was only at scene ‘for a house party’, court told

Robertas Sciolokovas, 30, was among five Lithuanian men arrested after police uncovered 100 plants inside a farm property near Cookstown on March 2 this year.

With another of the suspects wounded and claiming to have been trafficked, a pistol and ammunition were also found during follow-up searches.

Sciolokovas, of Knockamell Park in Armagh, faces charges of cultivating cannabis, false imprisonment, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, possessing a firearm in suspicious circumstances and dishonestly using electricity.

He was granted bail but banned from contacting any of the co-accused.

Prosecution counsel Mark Farrell said police traced a 999 call for help to a rural location on the Tulnacross Road.

At the scene they encountered a foreign national male bleeding from a facial injury who said he had been assaulted and mentioned the word “gun”.