Earlier this year, bailiffs broke down the front door of an Edwardian house in Bricket Wood, a leafy corner of suburban Hertfordshire. The house had been let by a local estate agent to an Asian family. Neighbours had begun to notice strange aromas leaking from the property and the walls seemed very hot; parts of the brickwork had become bleached as if by the sun. The windows were boarded up, although sometimes the glow of powerful lights would leak through the cracks.
The bailiffs were quickly followed by the Hertfordshire Serious Organised Crime unit with dog handlers, together with the fire brigade, a qualified electrician and a team of immigration officers. They found thousands of cannabis plants growing in the four bedrooms, the bathroom and the downstairs rooms, all under intense heat and light.
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
Police are due to report
a huge rise in raids on illegal cannabis farms. john gibb reports |
| |
The smell and the heat were overpowering. A small space had been left in the kitchen to store equipment, seeds and fertiliser. The electricity supply had been bypassed and power was being taken straight off the mains. Police arrested Tu-o anh Tran, a 29-year-old Vietnamese who was looking after the plants. He is now serving 15 months in jail for growing cannabis and abstracting electricity.
The Bricket Wood raid was one of 32 cannabis factories busted in Hertfordshire since February - and the picture is similar across the country.
This week, the Association of Chief Police Officers will report on the results of a two-week initiative in 17 counties in September which resulted in hundreds of raids. The report will show that growing dope has become a huge money-spinning racket across the country. 
|
