2:42pm Monday 6th July 2009
By Jenny Makin
CANNABIS with a street value of more than £650,000 has been seized by police waging a war against organised crime in Southampton.
The drug has been in mass production in homes across the city which have been transformed into makeshift factories.
A total of 20 converted houses, each with three or four bedrooms, have been uncovered in the past three months with drugs at all levels of cultivation found inside.
Each has been transformed, with most rooms stripped out to aid the growing process.
In many cases, floorboards have been lifted in order to gain access to the electricity supply which is clamped in a bid to bypass the circuit and therefore not generate unusual bills running into thousands of pounds.
Vietnamese gangs are thought to be behind most of the operations – renting out the homes and paying up in advance before transforming them using special lighting and blackout equipment on the windows.
In most cases, a “gardener” is usually put in place to tend to the crop and look after the plants. Police believe they are mostly young Vietnamese nationals who have been illegally trafficked into the city.
It’s thought Southampton is being targeted – in the past it has been referred to as the cannabis capital of the south – because of the large number of available rented property.
The latest factories were uncovered during dawn raids in the Shirley area and led to the discovery of £150,000 worth of the drug.
The properties, one in Old Mill Way, and the other in Foundry Lane, were semi-detached three and four bedroom homes.
Det Sgt Lee Macarthur, leading the crackdown called Operation Closed, urged members of the public to be vigilant, saying cannabis factories posed a dangerous risk.
He said: “They are associated with organised gang crime, and have previously been responsible for fires and power surges, all of which can impact on neighbouring addresses.
“It should also be remembered that cannabis factories could be imprisoning vulnerable people.
People trafficked to the UK for such purposes are often kept in poor conditions and prevented from contacting their families.”
He continued: “Operation Closed is all about reinforcing the message that Southampton is closed to drug production and drug dealing. Its success so far proves that this city is dedicated to fighting against illegal drugs and the devastating effects they bring.”
DETECTIVES today urged residents to continue to help the fight against mass scale cannabis production.
Having already received calls that have led to raids and the dismantling of such factories, they called for people to report suspicious properties or activity in their street.
Det Sgt Macarthur said: “Your information is helping us in our fight against cannabis factories and catching those people responsible for bringing drugs into your area.
“Landlords and property managers should continue being extra vigilant when taking on new tenants, and remain aware of what’s going on inside their premises. It is an offence to knowingly allow drug production to take place in a property you own or manage and carry a jail term of up to 14 years.”
Things to look out for include closed/blacked out windows, powerful lights left on in the house throughout the night, a strong and pungent smell, vehicles coming and going at night, unkempt gardens and no occupants seen during the daytime.
Anyone with any information or suspicions about drug production taking place at a property can contact the Drugs Investigation Team at Hulse Road on 0845 045 45 45 or Crimestoppers the charity, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
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