DRUGS with a street value of £150,000 were seized when police raided a cannabis factory in the New Forest yesterday.

Officers recovered more than 400 mature cannabis plants and about 20kg of herbal cannabis.

Two men were arrested during the operation, which took place in the picturesque village of South Gorley, near Ringwood.

It was the latest in a series of victories for officers conducting the war on drugs in the Forest.

Four months ago the New Forest Crime Unit raided a house at Brockenhurst and made the biggest-ever seizure of Ecstasy in the area.

Officers swooped on an address at Lyndhurst Road and found more than 1,000 tablets of the illegal Class A drug, plus 1.5kg of herbal cannabis. The drugs had a street value of more than £10,000.

A week later officers seized 30 cannabis plants and half-a-kilo of herbal cannabis after raiding a property at Greatwood Close, Hythe.

Yesterday's operation was carried out on an address in Blind Lane, South Gorley,

In a statement Hampshire police said today: "Two men were arrested after officers executed a drugs warrant.

"During the search they seized 414 mature cannabis plants and approximately 20kg of herbal cannabis from the premises. The seizure has a street value of approximately £150,000.

"A total of 25 officers were involved in the raid, part of an on-going drugs initiative being run by New Forest police.

"One of the men arrested is in his 60s and the other in his 30s."

Britain was branded the cannabis capital of Europe last year after it was revealed that that one in five people aged between 15 and 34 had tried the drug in the previous 12 months.