News from the UKCIA

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A national police crackdown on illegal cannabis factories has been launched.

The operation involves close to 20 police forces in England and Wales and is expected to last for two weeks.

Cannabis factories will be closed down by police and the criminal networks who run them disrupted and dismantled.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) is expected to announce further details of the crackdown later on Monday.

Alan Gibson, Acpo’s lead on cannabis cultivation, said: “Cannabis cultivation is an increasing problem which must be nipped in the bud.

“This operation will see police closing cannabis factories across the country, arresting those concerned and using the Proceeds of Crime Act to attack the criminal profits being made.

“Cannabis cultivation is seen by criminals as a low risk, high profit industry, but this operation will send out a clear message that cannabis production is a serious offence and that offenders will be brought to justice.

“Not only is the money from cannabis cultivation ploughed back into serious crime, but the bypassing of the electricity needed to run the factories causes risk of fire and electrocution and they have already caused several devastating fires.”

As part of the operation, police are expected to ask the public to look out for telltale signs of cannabis factories being run from properties in their neighbourhood.

These include the windows of a property being permanently covered, gardening equipment left outside or a pungent smell emanating from inside.

Police today revealed they were stepping up their fight against large-scale cannabis factories after discovering drug barons are using homes in the county solely to grow the plant.

Norfolk police are among 20 forces taking part in a national crackdown on the drug producers and called on the public to tip them off about houses which have been given over entirely to growing vast amounts of cannabis.

It emerged today that just last week police raided a three-bedroomed home in St Martin’s Road, Norwich, where they found 400 cannabis plants being grown with a street value of tens of thousands of pounds.

Three Lebanese men were arrested and two have been charged with conspiracy to produce drugs for supply.

As part of the operation, codenamed Atone, police are asking the public to look out for telltale signs of cannabis factories being run from properties in their neighbourhood.

These include the windows of a property being permanently covered, gardening equipment left outside or a pungent smell coming from inside.

Detective Inspector Tony Deacon, of Norfolk police, said: “This is a message going out to the public to give us information on where these premises are being used to cultivate large amounts of cannabis.

“What we are targeting are the people who are more organised in carrying out these criminal activities. The emerging picture coming from the Metropolitan Police are that people are letting premises solely to use to produce cannabis and we are now seeing that picture emerging in Norfolk.

“We have had one or two examples where we have raided places which fit what we are looking for.”

Det Insp Deacon said the information Norfolk police was after from the public for this operation was about the large-scale criminal producers of cannabis, not details of people who just grow one or two plants for their own use.

Posters and postcards were today being distributed around the county urging the public to pass on information about homes given over for cannabis cultivation to the police.

The operation will initially last for two weeks but Det Insp Deacon said it could last longer, depending on the intelligence the police receive. A nationwide crackdown on cannabis “factories” has been launched by police alarmed by figures showing that the high-strength “skunk” variety of the drug now accounts for 60 per cent of the UK market.

An operation involving 17 forces in England and Wales will run over the next two weeks with the aim of closing hundreds of cannabis cultivation units, ranging from vast warehouses on farms to terraced suburban houses crammed with plants, and disrupting the crime gangs behind them.

Skunk contains far higher quantities of the chemical THC than herbal or resinbased cannabis

The growth of skunk, which has overtaken more “traditional” herbal or resin cannabis, has accelerated over the last six years.

Skunk is significantly more profitable, selling at up to £120 an ounce, compared to up to £70 for herbal and up to £50 for resin.

British gangsters are heavily involved in “hydroponic” cultivation of skunk - growing plants in secluded warehouses using liquid nutrients.

The largest warehouse raided by police contained 20,000 plants worth £8 million.

In recent years there has also been an explosion, particularly in London, of smallscale factories in residential homes, in which many hundreds of plants are grown under intense light powered by electricity illegally and dangerously diverted from the mains supply. There have been a number of fires. This area is dominated by Vietnamese gangsters using illegal “trafficked” workers.

Police identified at least 700 cannabis factories in London alone last year and there is clear evidence that the skunk trade is expanding across the UK, leading to the operation coordinated by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

Skunk contains far higher quantities of the chemical THC than herbal or resinbased cannabis. In the mid-1990s only around 10 per cent of cannabis in the UK was believed to be skunk.

But the percentage in the last 10 years has spiralled to 60 per cent of the market, a calculation based on police seizures.

The growing consumption of skunk will fuel the debate over whether the decision to downgrade cannabis from a Class B to a Class C narcotic in 2004 was appropriate for a new form of the drug which can be between four and seven time stronger than traditional “dope” - and whether the decision had contributed to the growth of skunk.

Concerns have been raised about the health effects of skunk - particularly in those with some types of mental illness - and its potential to become more of a “gateway” than herbal/resin cannabis to harder drugs.

Gangsters are thought to consider cannabis dealing to be a “lower risk” than dealing in hard drugs but police chiefs argue that cultivating and trafficking cannabis can still attract sentences of up to 14 years.

Police in east Belfast have uncovered a suspected cannabis factory following the search of a property in the area yesterday afternoon.

During the raid at the house in the Albertbridge Road area of the city, police recovered 35 mature cannabis plants, and other paraphernalia.

A 26-year-old man was arrested at the scene for the cultivation of cannabis with intent to supply.