Growing equipment and cannabis dumped in city

CANNABIS plants worth hundreds of pounds have been found dumped recklessly beside one of Plymouth's busiest roads.

Embankment Road is one of six spots where heaps of discarded drugs and growing equipment have been discovered, in a bizarre string of illegal fly-tipping.

Detectives are now exploring whether a 'cannabis factory' - or parts of several - may have been dismantled and scattered across the city.

Plant pots, ventilation systems, soil and the hacked-up unwanted off-cuts from cannabis plants are among the haul of waste discovered everywhere from deepest Devonport to remote country lanes.

Plymouth police's Drug Liaison Officer, Detective Constable Stuart Payne, said it appeared a grower had got "spooked", dumping their haul in a bid to evade capture.

He said members of the public had reported the fly-tipping to both the police and Plymouth City Council.

A closer look uncovered an array of equipment in Roborough Lane, near Tamerton Foliot, Barn Park Road, in Peverell, Cross Hill, in Devonport, and notorious fly-tipping hotspot Mowhay Road, in Weston Mill.

Further discoveries were made under the St Levan Road railway bridge and, on Thursday, at the Yacht Haven in Embankment Road, where large bags crammed full of around 100 plants were found.

Dc Payne said: "The equipment that has been dumped is mostly cannabis production waste.

"We've taken in hundreds of plastic pots, bags and bags of soil, spent compost, ventilation tubing and the waste parts of cannabis such as the leaves and storks.

"At Embankment Road we had bags of cannabis plants themselves dumped, which is strange and unusual.

"We're talking plants coming up to maturity and young saplings that have been planted in the grow-plugs.

"The only think we haven't got is the expensive lighting that is used to grow the plants.

"We believe someone may have been spooked and had a bit of a clear-out on a few production sites in Plymouth because they're scared of discovery."

Forensics experts are now set to examine the items in the hope of finding clues.

But Dc Payne urged anybody with information to come forward.

"If somebody has seen vehicles or people acting suspiciously near these fly-tipping sites we would like to hear from them," he added.

"We would also urge landlords to check their properties and report anything suspicious to the police."

Dozens of cannabis factories - many run by Vietnamese crime gangs - have already been uncovered by police in Plymouth.

They typically see reclusive criminals rent out houses, then hack dangerously into electricity supplies to grow super-strength 'skunk' cannabis under intense artificial lighting.

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk 17/12/2011