Police followed their noses to uncover a cannabis farm after being called out to investigate suspicious activity nearby.
The keen investigative instincts of officers led them to find 400 cannabis plants and arrest a 16-year-old on suspicion of producing cannabis – after they had initially been called out to investigate reports of three men prowling around the side of a house.
During the search, officers noticed a strong smell of cannabis coming from one of the nearby houses, and they attended an address in Nottingham Road, Radford, after an initial search of the area for the men resulted in no-one being found just before 4.45am this morning (Friday 5 February 2021).
When they got closer to the property, officers saw a hole which led to a basement area of the house, and on closer inspection they found a significant amount of cannabis that was being grown.
Officers arrested a 16-year-old on suspicion of producing cannabis after they found him in the garden of the property.
The number of arrests for drug trafficking has risen by six per cent over the past year, which is a reflection of Nottinghamshire Police’s proactive approach to tackling drug dealers. This approach has been further boosted by the introduction of local Operation Reacher teams to all 12 neighbourhood policing areas within Nottinghamshire. These teams consistently listen to local communities, gather information on their concerns and potential crime in the area, and then act on this information to intercept and provent illegal activity, making it increasingly difficult for criminals to operate unnoticed.
The cannabis dismantling team has been on site this morning and over 400 plants have been recovered.
Inspector Paul Molloy of Nottinghamshire Police said: “This find is testament to our officers trusting their instincts and continuing their search of the area after this report.
“A large quantity of class B drugs have now been recovered and no longer have the potential to make it on to the street.
“Cannabis production impacts negatively on communities in a number of ways. Often we find electricity has been bypassed to avoid the high costs of electricity needed to light cannabis grows – which can be a fire hazard and put unwitting neighbours at serious risk. We also find that houses where cannabis is being grown can become a target to other criminals who often come armed and ready for violence to steal the drugs.
“We know the people of Nottinghamshire don’t want this type of activity happening in their neighbourhoods and it is often thanks to community intelligence that we find out about drug supply and production and people can be confident that if they give us information about this type of activity we will act on it.
“We continue our investigation into this find by officers and the circumstances around it, and would encourage anyone with information to get in touch on 101.”
