[Arneldo]

COPS have raided the BBC’s Castaway Island — because drug lords used it to grow DOPE.

New Zealand’s remote Great Barrier Island is perfect for the reality show, which features 20 ‘shipwrecked’ contestants.

But crooks were growing cannabis in secret plots — then selling the drug to users in Auckland.

The drug squad swooped just hours before contestants were flown in for the show, which starts next Friday. A local source said: “Great Barrier Island is out of the way so people have been exploiting that to grow weed.

“Everyone knows it’s been going on.”

Cops used helicopters to find the cannabis crops and sprayed them with poison.

Police chief Rob Cochrane confirmed: “We have been flying over and spraying to stop the cultivation of cannabis on the island.”

He said the timing of the spraying with the start of the BBC1 show was “just a coincidence”, adding: “It’s an annual thing which we do towards the end of the summer season.”

But one drugs patch was near the beachside film set.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that one of the show’s contestants is an EX-JUNKIE.

Carpenter Jason started taking drugs aged 11 and was addicted to crack and heroin for 24 years. He finally quit his £600-a-day habit two years ago.

The new show is a revamp of the original 2000 series — which ran for a year and was filmed on the Scottish island of Taransay. The contestants will spend 12 weeks on the Pacific island, living on basic rations and staying in ramshackle housing.

Thirteen have now arrived on the island, including a deaf middle-aged divorcee, a busty blonde former RAF girl, a newlywed environmentalist, a self-confessed anarchist and an 18-year-old ladies’ man.

Producers have also found an obese 20-something man called Alister, who is a dead ringer for the character Hurley from hit US drama Lost.

The seven other contestants will arrive in the next few days.

The Sun