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Landlords and letting agents are on the front line of weeding out cannabis farms as criminal gangs increasingly turn rented homes and commercial properties into drug factories.
Police are increasingly calling on landlords to inspect their rental properties to catch the gangs regularly.
Drugs squad police are regular visitors to landlord forum meetings and have teamed up with letting agents spread the word about how to spot the tell-tale signs of a cannabis farm. In the past few weeks, cannabis farms were raided in Wigan, Leeds; Hull; Tyneside; Ipswich; Sevenoaks, Kent and Chester.
Police in Stockport, Greater Manchester, have raided almost 40 cannabis farms in the past year. Inspector Neil Cook from the town’s neighbourhood police team said: “We have uncovered quite a few cannabis farms.
“The links we have found are to organised crime groups who generally prey on vulnerable people, that it why it is a priority for us. “The criminals fund their lifestyle through supplying drugs, which they need to produce somewhere and these are the places we target to disrupt their activity and where possible bring them to justice.”
Police say many of the country’s cannabis farms are run by organised gangs from South-East Asia who install a small team of illegal immigrant ‘gardeners’ to pay off their travel costs to the UK by guarding and tending the crop.
Here are some of the tips:
Other signs to watch for are tenants paying rent for six months or a year upfront.
“Often the drugs gang has someone local fronting property rental so they pass credit checks,” said the police spokesman.