Organised crime groups have been targeting empty shops and pubs in town centres to grow cannabis on an industrial scale, say police bosses. Over the last year, raids have been carried out in dozens of properties, from an old toy shop in Ayr, Scotland, to a former bank in Welshpool, Powys.
Vacant restaurants, cafes, nightclubs, bingo halls and office buildings have all been used to grow the drug, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council. In Newport, south Wales, criminals used several floors of a former department store on the main shopping street to grow more than 3,000 cannabis plants. The street value of the cannabis grown in just that one former store was an estimated two million pounds.
Estate agents, electricians and tradespeople have been warned they face prosecution if they help gangs convert the buildings to cannabis farms.
Source: BBC
In other news – Row over Tory MP’s Allahu Akbar arrest call
Conservative MP Robert Jenrick has defended himself after being accused of Islamophobia for saying police should have “immediately arrested” any protesters shouting Allahu Akbar during last year’s Gaza ceasefire protests.
Speaking on Sky News, the Tory leadership candidate accused police of treating far-right marches and violence more harshly than the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that began after the Israel-Hamas war began in October last year. Read more
