Six people have been arrested following a haul of 450 kilogrammes of cannabis yesterday, the police said.

They said in a statement that the find was made following a week of investigations and observations in different areas in the Swieqi and Madliena areas, which led to the identification of spots where it was being suspected that drugs were being hidden.

The first find, the police said, was in a room at a hotel in Swieqi, registered on a 28-year-old man from Lithuania and a 53-year-old Serb, who holds a British passport.

In their room the police found 15 large blocks of cannabis weighing more than 14 kilogrammes. The two men were recently lodged at a hotel in Xlendi.

Later, the police carried out an intensive search at a villa in the Wied id-Dis area in Madliena finding between the wall and the rock of its garage some 81 blocks of cannabis weighing around 80 kilogrammes. The villa’s gardeners - two brothers from Swieqi, one aged 28, the other 21, were arrested.

Later in the evening, the police carried out a search at Victor Gardens, in the limits of Ibragg, Swieqi and found, 389 blocks of cannabis weighing some 370 kilogrammes in a large underground hole accessible from a narrow hole, which only a thin person could go through.

Another search was carried out in an apartment in Wied id-Dis where more than a kilogramme of cannabis as well as weighing scales were found.

An English man and woman, aged 39 and 38, respectively, lived at this apartment.

The man attacked the officers when they went to search the apartment slightly injuring a policeman and two policewomen.

He tried to throw away the drug but he was observed doing so by the police. Both were arrested.

Magistrate Lawrence Quintano appointed experts to help with an inquiry.

The arrested people are expected to be arraigned in the coming days.