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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Drugs Raid Haul Shock
Barnsley Today
Saturday 20 May 2006 DETECTIVES hunting a Far East criminal gang behind a large-scale drug production enterprise in Sheffield have discovered three cannabis factories in the city. Plants worth half a million pounds were found in two terraced properties on City Road and one on Granville Road after police officers smashed their way inside. The haul included cannabis bushes at all stages of the growing cycle to guarantee a constant supply of the drug. The houses had sophisticated factory set-ups complete with expensive hydroponics, lighting and feeding systems. The plants were growing in every room of the Granville Road home and one of the City Road properties. In the other, the top floor was packed with plants. No-one was in any of the properties during the raid. Drugs Squad officers from Attercliffe police station, working with officers from the Manor Safer Neighbourhood Team, replaced the doors to the factories after their surprise raids and lay in wait outside the houses hoping the "farmers" would return to check on their plants. One man, believed to be an illegal immigrant from Vietnam, turned up at Granville Road later in the afternoon and was arrested after a short chase up the street. A second man, also believed to be an illegal Vietnamese immigrant, was arrested at one of the City Road properties after the raids. The raids came after officers burst into another two factories in neighbouring properties on City Road last month, arresting four illegal immigrants also from Vietnam. On that occasion 800 cannabis plants with a street value of £400,000 were found - growing in every room of the houses, including the attics and cellars. Two men were charged with drug cultivating offences and remanded in custody pending their court cases. Detectives are now looking for possible links between the four factories. They suspect an organised criminal gang, run by Vietnamese nationals, could be behind them. Forces elsewhere have seen a number of organised gangs from the Far East operating similar drug enterprises in their regions, netting hundreds of thousands of pounds for the masterminds. The "Mr Bigs" running the criminal gangs pay employees at the bottom of the drug supply chain to run the factories and tend to the crops during the growing stages. DS Bob Chapman from Sheffield's drugs squad said there could be similar factories elsewhere in the city. He added: "The Metropolitan Police has a major problem with Vietnamese gangs running cannabis networks in London and forces elsewhere are reporting problems, so it appears as though they are trying to get a foothold in every major city in the country and with every factory set-up we uncover we are looking for links with other. "We have had some huge successes in terms of ridding the streets of South Yorkshire of drugs, with around £1.25 million worth recovered in our district alone and other successes in other districts. Cannabis is big business at the moment. "We will not tolerate enterprises like this operating and people benefiting from crime to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds. "If they come here to set these factories up it is going to cost them because we will find them, we will seize their plants, equipment and assets. "There is a strong possibility that all these gangs are linked], so we will work with other forces across the country to do all we can to smash them." http://www.barnsleytoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?sectionid=86&articleid=1515516
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