Police find cannabis plantation under A2 bridge in Vianen

Police discovered an illegal cannabis operation inside a bridge on the A2 highway near Vianen on Wednesday, uncovering 180 plants hidden in a technical space under the Jan Blankenbrug, RTL reports. Authorities say the find explains previously unexplained spikes in electricity usage at the site.

The grow operation was located in a pillar beneath the bridge in what the municipality described as a “technical room.” Mayor Sjors Fröhlich of Vijfheerenlanden said the perpetrators had forced open a door, noting that Rijkswaterstaat, the national road authority, had previously noticed the lock had been cut several times.

“We didn’t expect to find an illegal cannabis cultivation operation,” Fröhlich told RTL Nieuws. “There’s youth hanging around here, so it could have been vandalism. It’s also not easy to access the space.”

Investigators say the bridge itself uses minimal electricity, but the growers had tapped into the power supply to run their lighting, causing a significant spike in energy consumption. “There was an illegal electricity connection powering the lights, which caused the high usage,” Fröhlich explained. “Rijkswaterstaat inadvertently paid the electricity costs.”

Authorities believe the grow operation was relatively new. “This appears to be the first harvest,” Fröhlich said. “It had not been set up long.”