(ANSA) - Enna, July 4 - A Sicilian grave-digger has been caught growing marijuana in a cemetery here.

The 42-year-old man had two clumps of the illegal crop, one nestling in the lee of old monumental graves and the other tucked away near the graves of stillborn children.

An off-duty policeman spotted the hemp plots while visiting a relative's grave, bringing in an undercover team who set up a surveillance operation in unfinished tombs.

A daytime shift turned up no comers so the police began a 24-hour vigil and finally caught up with the watering can-bearing gravedigger as he approached his plants early one morning.