Police have seized as much as £130m value of hashish as a part of a nationwide crackdown, described because the “most significant” operation of its variety in UK regulation enforcement historical past.
Officers found greater than 180,000 hashish vegetation through the sequence of co-ordinated raids, geared toward unearthing and disrupting organised crime teams (OCGs) throughout England and Wales.
Police additionally found 20 firearms, £1m value of cocaine and £636,000 in money in relation to the month-long crackdown, which passed off throughout June.
Steve Jupp, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for Serious and Organised Crime, mentioned the operation had “successfully disrupted a significant amount of criminal activity”.
“We know that organised networks involved in cannabis production are also directly linked to an array of other serious criminality such as class A drug importation, modern slavery and wider violence and exploitation,” he mentioned.
“The intelligence gathered will also help inform future law enforcement activity across the country.”
Named Operation Mille, the crackdown concerned officers co-ordinating a thousand search warrants final month.
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Police say searches and arrests had been made in all counties in England and Wales.
Alongside native police forces and Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCU), the operation concerned officers from the National Crime Agency and Immigration Enforcement.
The intention of the operation was to disrupt OCGs by taking out a key supply of their income, whereas additionally apprehending lots of these concerned.
A complete of 967 individuals had been arrested for offences together with hashish cultivation, cash laundering and weapons offences, of which greater than 450 individuals have since been charged.
Mr Jupp mentioned: “Cannabis-related crime is commonly considered ‘low stage’, nevertheless there are clear patterns across the exploitation and violence OCGs are utilizing to guard their enterprises.
“We also frequently find that cannabis production is just one aspect of their criminal operations and that they are complicit in wider offending which blights our communities.
“We’ve not solely been capable of disrupt the prison operations of a big variety of organised crime teams, but additionally elevated our understanding of their different prison actions.”
Source: information.sky.com”