Drug gangs lose £1m cannabis haul

Result: Police raid Mexborough property to find cannabis growing

CANNABIS worth more than £1m has been recovered by police in just seven months from Mexborough as officers seek to dismantle the town’s illicit drugs industry.

The drugs were recovered from a network of ‘farms’, where the plants have been cultivated covertly in buildings around the area.

In September Doncaster South Neighbourhood Policing Team officers have been gathering intelligence on cannabis farms hidden inside buildings in Mexborough.

That evidence has been used in applications for warrants under Misuse of Drugs Act, allowing officers to enter properties and bust the farms.

Some have used sophisticated growing systems, designed to produce plants on an industrial scale.

In one abandoned building, the team found 511 plants spread across various rooms after dismantling a metal shutter to gain access to the premises.

In one room, a man was found hiding among the plants, with two men later arrested, charged and convicted for production of a Class B drug.

Another raid saw the team locate a cannabis farm with 387 plants and earlier this month, a house hiding a 240-strong cannabis plant farm was discovered following reports of an aggravated burglary at the property.

Doncaster South NPT Insp Adrian Luscombe said: "A lot of intelligence gathering goes into obtaining these warrants and dismantling these cannabis set-ups and I am pleased we have been able to remove a large quantity of harmful drugs from circulation.

"These cannabis farms are often linked to organised crime gangs responsible for violence and terror on our streets.

"By wiping out these farms, we deprive them of a source of income which allows us to massively disrupt their operations and ultimately makes our communities safer.

"The gangs running these farms often exploit vulnerable people to look after the grows and the bypassing of electricity poses a substantial fire risk to neighbouring properties.

"We do rely on the public sharing information with us so we can act, investigate and dismantle these cannabis farms and I would encourage local residents to continue sharing information and intelligence with us so we continue to crackdown on this criminality."

Information about drug dealing can be reported to neighbourhood police on the non-emergency number 101 or by filling out a form on our website: https://www.southyorkshire.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/.