A second, huge cannabis farm packed with plants has been seized in a Greater Manchester town, with two men under arrest and in custody to be questioned.
An ‘industrial scale’ cannabis farm filled with plants worth £500,000 was found in a town centre raid in Oldham last week, GMP revealed. The force said officers acting on intelligence swooped on an address on Rock Street and found 600 plants inside.
Now a second farm containing more than 400 mature cannabis plants has been uncovered.
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As the town slept, Oldham officers swooped to execute a dawn raid in the Hollins area of the town on Tuesday morning. An angle grinder was used by police to open up roller shutter doors at an address not revealed.
“Officers have seized over 400 mature cannabis plants and two men aged 24 and 25 have been arrested on suspicion of cultivation of cannabis and remain in police custody for questioning,” said GMP in a statement.
Chief Superintendent Phil Hutchinson, of GMP’s Oldham District, said cannabis worth £1.2m has been taken off the streets in the last seven days.
He said: “Cannabis-related crime can be misconstrued as being a ‘low level’, but there are underlying serious and organised networks that are running these enterprises, and this is just one aspect of their criminal businesses – which often funds violence on our streets and blights our communities.
“The action this morning has not only been able to disrupt criminal operations, but this is organised criminality controlling the grows, so the activity today has weakened the crime networks in both Oldham and the wider Greater Manchester area.
“I would like to thank the members of the public who have reported their suspicions to us through Crimestoppers.
“I hope the action today shows that we will act on information submitted to us as we seek to keep our communities safe, to help us, we want the public to continue reporting their concerns, it may be the final piece of the intelligence jigsaw that we need.
“In the last seven days alone, officers from Operation Challenger and Neighbourhood teams have recovered cannabis with an estimated street value of £1.2million, and we will continue to take the fight to criminals and disrupting organised criminality.”
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