ILLEGAL drug making equipment recovered from a Hampshire cannabis factory is now being used to feed animals and endangered creatures at Marwell Zoo.

More than £9,000 worth of lamps, water pumps and other items used to grow cannabis was donated to the Hampshire zoological park by police and is now being used to cultivate tropical plants and herbs.

Held by police following the raid on a drug making operation in Eastleigh in May last year, the hydroponics equipment was due to be destroyed after the case but Detective Sergeant Darren Rawlings of Eastleigh CID came up with the idea of donating them, after a trip to the zoo with his children.

"It seemed a waste of the equipment which could be used legally," he said.

Destroyed

"In the majority of instances, equipment linked to crime is destroyed after the successful outcome of a court case. On this occasion, we applied to the court for a forfeiture order, which has enabled us to make this unusual donation to Marwell."

The zoo is set to save thousands of pounds a year by the donation as it will no longer have to buy all the plants that play an important part in the diet and surroundings of species in the park, as they can now be grown out of season.

Sodium lights are being used in greenhouses to speed-up the propagation and growth of plant and heated seed trays will provide a regular and cheaper supply of herbs which are enjoyed by the zoo's primates including Golden Lion Tamarins, Colobus monkeys, Siamang gibbons and Sulawesi crested macaques.

Heaters and pumps are also being used to house rare crocodile newts in the Tropical World section.

James Cretney, chief executive of Marwell, said the zoo could use the equipment effectively and the donation was a great example of Marwell's partnership with the local area.

"Marwell is delighted to receive the confiscated equipment, which will now be used for the benefit, welfare and conservation of rare and endangered species," he said.

The equipment was seized from a house in Causton Gardens, in Eastleigh in May 2005.

Dale Munday, 23, a landscape gardener, of Ashurst was sentenced to 21 months in jail last month for producing cannabis and hijacking electricity supply in what the judge called a "sophisticated system of cultivating cannabis."