Police plea as cannabis seizures near £40m

Published on Sunday 29 August 2010 17:46

Scotland's police forces seized nearly £40 million worth of cannabis plants in the past four years

More than 130,000 plants were taken by police - enough to cover the football pitches at Hampden Park, Ibrox and Celtic Park.

The plants, with an estimated street value of 39.2m, were seized under a national crackdown on cannabis cultivation launched in 2006.

Since then, police have unearthed 278 commercial cannabis cultivations in Scotland and have arrested 304 people in connection with the seizures.

Most of the people arrested were of south-east Asian origin, with 74 per cent of those arrested being Chinese and 22 per cent Vietnamese. So far in 2010, police have seized more than 12,000 plants worth 3.6m.

Cultivations have been found in all eight of Scotland's police forces. The figures were released as the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) launched a campaign to call on the public to report suspicious activity to the police.

Tell-tale signs include blacked-out windows, premises being unoccupied most of the time, unusual amounts of heat coming through the walls and floor and the sound of fans or extractor fans.

SCDEA director, deputy chief constable Gordon Meldrum, said: "We need people to be the eyes and ears of their communities. The commercial cultivation of cannabis represents a highly profitable business for serious organised crime groups.

"Across Scotland, police have detected hundreds of cultivations and arrested hundreds of people."I strongly believe that with the public taking a healthy interest in what's going on around them and using their common senses, we can increase the risk to those behind the cultivations, make them more vulnerable to law enforcement, and ultimately make them think twice about doing business here."