West Midlands Police seize a cannabis plant every 10 minutes

Ecstasy, anabolic steroids, crack and cocaine also alarmingly available. But West Midlands one of the worst areas in Britain for cannabis factories.

Police in the West Midlands seized a cannabis plant every 10 MINUTES last year, according to new figures released by the Home Office.

West Midlands Police recovered 52,218 plants in just 12 months as more and more cannabis factories set up in undercover business.

Seizures of herbal cannabis jumped by seven per cent and the amount of cannabis resin confiscated by cops rose by 16.6 per cent.

The figures makes the West Midlands one of the worst areas in Britain for the number of cannabis factories.

Many of the factories uncovered by police are “large scale” and designed to churn out the drug on an industrial scale.

They are often set up by organised crime syndicates who force illegal immigrant ‘gardeners’ to tend the plants.

In some cases the gangs can have at least ten houses at a time, raking in £1 million from the operation every 12 months.

But they also risk the lives of firefighters and neighbours by illegally digging up, and tapping into, the electricity mains.

Police using helicopters equipped with thermal imaging cameras can pick up the heat signature of the lamps under which the plants grow.

Such is the scale of the problem that West Midlands Police has set up a specialist cannabis disposal team.

Illegal factories used to be dismantled by officers, but following the dramatic rise in the number of cannabis facilities, and the health and safety issues involved, a dedicated team of police staff now disposes of the drugs.

Their role is to dismantle the factories, making redundant equipment used to grow the plants, recycling parts where possible, removing cannabis plants and chemicals, and helping to make the building safe.

All cannabis plants are burned at a ‘waste to energy’ plant and every burning is overseen by a uniformed officer to ensure the cannabis never makes its way back out onto the streets.

The growth in cannabis production is mirrored by the soaring amount of anabolic steroids seized by cops, with one dose discovered every five hours.

A gram of cocaine is found every seven hours, and Ecstasy is uncovered ever two and a half hours.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/police-seize-cannabis-plant-west-8481317 20/01/2015