Quality | 2010.08.17
Cannabis farm boom fuelling rise of violence
Police say drug gangs are arming themselves with machetes, shotguns and dogs as crop seizures double
A rising tide of violence is accompanying a boom in illegal cannabis farms and factories in Britain, according to senior police officers.
Nearly 7,000 cannabis farms and factories were uncovered by the police in the past 12 months – more than double the number detected in 2007-08, the Association of Chief Police Officers said.
An Acpo report into the scale of commercial cultivation of cannabis in Britain said that those running the factories were increasingly arming themselves with machetes, sawn-off shotguns and dangerous dogs to deal with rival gangs trying to steal their crops. Booby traps had also been discovered in some factories.
The trade was still largely run by Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants, sometimes aided by young teenagers who had been trafficked into the country. But more white British people than ever were also getting involved, the report said.
Commander Allan Gibson, of the Metropolitan police, said that private homes remained the property of choice for large-scale cannabis cultivation. But a growth in the number of disused factories and warehouses since the onset of the recession had led to a shift towards other sorts of premises.
Police had found cannabis farms in the past two years in former pubs, cinemas, nightclubs, printworks and banks, as well as other industrial premises.
"Between 2004 and 2007, 800 cannabis factories a year were being uncovered by the police," Gibson said. "That rose to over 3,000 a year in 2007-08 and over 6,800 in 2009-10. This increase is attributed to a number of factors, including an increased focus on law enforcement."
The largest recorded cannabis factory was uncovered in July at Haddenham in Cambridgeshire, where more than 7,600 plants were seized with an estimated value of £2.5m.
The report said that the level of publicity around cannabis since its reclassification in 2008 meant that the public were reporting any unusual signs of habitation in buildings and houses, which was leading to higher detection rates.
Blacked-out windows, hot walls, condensation, strange or pungent aromas and people or traffic at all hours were all indications that a factory may exist in the neighbourhood.
"Several forces have reported the discovery of factories as a direct result of fires breaking out within the property, most likely due to tampering with the electric supply," the report said.
The police paper said there was no evidence that cannabis production in Britain was developing an export trade.
Data from the UK Border Agency showed that large amounts of cannabis were still being imported, indicating that demand remained so great that domestic production could not satisfy it.
"Although skunk cannabis is produced domestically in the UK there is still an appetite to import this variety as there is a perception by some criminals that UK-produced skunk is of a lower quality than varieties available on the continent," the report said.
The study also found that cannabis production was nationwide, with factories discovered in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. Glasgow was considered a hotspot for drying cannabis.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/17/drugs-trade-drugs
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