A TRAINSPOTTER turned crimebuster after stumbling upon a £28,000 drugs stash by a Newport railway line.

The find took place on November 17 last year, and has already led to an arrest by Gwent Police.

Detective Constable Jon Skillett, of Alway CID, pictured with the haul, said: "A person was down at the Bishton Sidings near Llanwern spotting trains when he noticed in a bush by the side there was a large toolbox, which he found contained cannabis.

"Inside, within a plastic bag, there were 38 nine-ounce bars of cannabis resin which would have a street resale value of about £28,000.

"The box was forensically examined. A person from Newport has now been charged with the offence."

The haul follows previous successes in shutting down cannabis 'factories' around Newport.

In December last year £20,000 of cannabis and growing equipment was seized in Newport, and in January more than £40,000 of plants were recovered from a property in Trevethin.

Meanwhile, British detectives were arriving in Guyana today to investigate how £9m worth of cocaine, seized in Newport, came to be hidden in a timber shipment.

Customs officers discovered 120 tons of the drug - shipped from the Caribbean to Felixstowe, then transported to Newport - worth an estimated £9 million, at a business park in Spytty.

Seven people have been charged in connection with the find.