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Police discover huge cannabis factory
This Is London | By Justin Davenport, Evening Standard Crime Correspondent | 11 June 2004

The three-bedroom suburban semi appeared like any other in the quiet residential street.

Only the permanently drawn blinds and the occasional visitor gave any sign of anything out of the ordinary.

However, when detectives from the City of London police raided the home they discovered an industrial-sized drug factory producing thousands of pounds worth of the superstrength cannabis known as skunk.

Each room in the semi, including the hall, was packed with hundreds of four-foot-high plants.

The find echoed scenes from the gangster movie Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, in which a group of hippies cultivated a potent strain of cannabis in their home.

In contrast to the film, police believe a highly organised crime gang was behind their find.

In total, officers from the City's specialist Central Detective Unit uncovered four homes that had been converted into drug farms, with a combined yield of about 10 kilos every five months.

At least two of the houses had been paid for outright in cash, the proceeds of the drug sales.

The gang sold each kilo of skunk for a wholesale price of £3,000.

The plants were being grown under so-called hydroponic cultivation, a soil-less method that pumps nutrients directly into the roots of a plant to speed up development.

Professional crime gangs are believed to be turning to the manufacture of home-grown cannabis because of the relatively high profits and the belief they are less likely to be targeted by police because of the drug's recent declassification.

[zombienote: Clearly, "reclassification" has been a large waste of time and money. As long as weed is ILLEGAL it will be PROFITABLE. The more the police enforce this dynamic, the better the profits. It's a like Law of Physics, basically.]

Across London officers are raiding around one skunk farm a week. According to the Independent Drug Monitoring Unit, home-grown skunk has overtaken Moroccan resin as the capital's favourite cannabis product.

Outdoor cultivation of the plant is also becoming much rarer, as it is now more easily recognised by members of the public.

One police source said: "We believe this is just the tip of the iceberg and dozens if not hundreds more houses are operating as cannabis farms across London.

"There has been a huge increase in the trade and people are making millions of pounds a year just from growing the plants."

City police detectives came across the three-bedroom house in a street in Romford while they were investigating a credit-card counterfeiting racket.

Detective Chief Inspector Bob Wishart of the City CDU, said: "These were essentially normal family homes which had been completely converted into cannabis factories. In some houses every square foot had been used for the cultivation process.

"This was a sophisticated and professional operation, there was a lot of electrical equipment. In one case they had plugged directly into the national grid and the electricity board declared it unsafe.

"The cannabis was being distributed to communities across London," he added.

The cost of setting up a large skunk farm can run into tens of thousands of pounds. The hi-tech cultivation method means the plants grow at a staggering one inch a day.

A total of six people were arrested in this week's raids on cannabis farms.

[zombienote: Six arrested, costly raids executed - NOTHING changed, helped or improved. Brilliant.]

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Alien Space Signal

There's no money for your issue so long as we're squandering $50 billion a year on the DrugWar. Ben Masel

Fear became the ultimate tool of this government - V.

 

Suetaz

Belgian mushroom farmers on cannabis charge

11 June 2004 | Expatica

BRUSSELS –Belgian police have arrested the owners of a disused mushroom farm after 4000 cannabis plants were discovered on the premises, it was reported on Friday.

The farm's owners, a couple aged 41 and 39 said they knew nothing about the bumper cannabis crop.

They said they had been renting out the building, which is in the Belgian town of Sint-Joris-Winge, for some time and they blamed their tenants for the illegal plantation.

But the Belgian investigating magistrate who ordered their arrest said he did not believe the couple's story.

He argued that as the couple lived in the building next door to the farm, they must have been aware of what was going on.

[Suetaznote: Whether it's in their own home or on an unused mushroom farm, people will grow cannabis! What part of this don't governments understand? Leave them alone to grow their medicine in peace!]

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