Drug plants seized in £325,000 swoops
Police seized 1,300 cannabis plants with a street value of £325,000 during raids on three drugs factories in the Black Country and Shropshire.
About 600 plants worth £150,000 were seized from a Walsall house turned into a cannabis factory.
Police raided the home in Brockhurst Street, Fullbrook, after complaints from neighbours on the smell of the plants being cultivated there.
Expensive hydroponics equipment used to grow plants was also seized during the raid at around noon yesterday.
Sergeant Carl Batson said: "It is big business. We were alerted to the property due to complaints from neighbours who said there had been a number of people visiting the property."
When police arrived they saw plants being grown in every room of the house – some were four ft tall.
He said people were living in "squalid conditions" in the living room, sleeping on a makeshift bed. "Gardeners' are believed to have been recruited to care for the plants by the people responsible for setting up the factory, he said.
A neighbour, who did not want to be named said a couple had lived there for about eight months. They were pleased over the raid.
At Cosford, near Wolverhampton, nearly 300 plants were found in an old henhouse. A further search at a house in the Sedgley area saw more than 400 plants being found in a loft. Police say the premises in Sedgley and Cosford are linked.
Three people – two men and a woman – were arrested on suspicion of being involved in the production of Class B cannabis.
They were held at Malinsgate police station, Telford, and were expected to be released on bail, pending further inquiries.
A Vietnamese couple are wanted in connection with running of the cannabis factory in Walsall.
Meanwhile dozens of police and sniffer dogs blitzed Walsall town centre last night in an operation to send a message to troublemakers and drug dealers.
Operation Townie included 20 officers patrolling the town centre between 8pm and 4am along with trading standards officials visiting nightspots and talking to revellers.
The operation led to 11 arrests for disorder offences and three arrest for drugs.
The operation was part of the ongoing Operation Be Safe.
By Andy Richardson
