Gardaí from Co Meath and the National Drugs Unit have found €500,000 worth of herbal cannabis and plants in three rented houses in the county.
Gardaí say the houses had been converted into cannabis grow houses by a Vietnamese criminal gang.
Sophisticated heating, lighting and irrigation systems were installed in the grow houses.
A series of searches were carried out in Dunshaughlin, Hallstown and Drumree over the past two days.
A 56-year-old man has been arrested and is being detained under Section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act at Kells Garda Station.
He can be questioned for up to a week.
Gardaí believe the man has been in the country illegally for the past eight years and was working for an Asian criminal gang which was selling the drugs to Irish criminals and abroad.
The seizure is the latest to come about under ‘Operation Nitrogen’, set up by the Garda National Drugs Unit to target criminal gangs involved in cannabis cultivation.
340 plants were growing in the house on the Red Bog Road in Dunshaughlin, another 450 in Coolmullen in Drumree along with 10kg of harvested cannabis and another 160 plants were being cultivated in Hallstown.
Gardaí say these grow houses can produce 400 plants in eight weeks with a street value of €250,000.
