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Daily Record
Daily Record
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Press Association & Sarah Vesty

Cops seize £130m of cannabis, guns and crossbow after raiding 1000 farms in crackdown

Cops have seized more than £130m worth of drugs after raiding over 1000 cannabis farms in a crackdown across the UK.

The massive month-long operation involved around 11,000 officers from Police Scotland and every other force in England and Wales.

Operation Mille, which took place in June, saw 200,000 cannabis plants confiscated along with 15 to 20 guns and more than 40 other offensive weapons - including a crossbow.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council says that £650,000 cash was also recovered with 1000 suspects arrested in connection.

Suspected dirty cash was seized (PA)

Steve Jupp, the NPCC’s lead for Serious and Organised Crime, said: "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.

"This operation not only successfully disrupted a significant amount of criminal activity, but the intelligence gathered will also help inform future law enforcement across the country.

A crossbow was recovered by officers (PA)

"Cannabis-related crime is often thought to be 'low level'; however, there are clear patterns around the exploitation and violence organised crime groups are using to protect 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."

A number of offensive weapons were seized (PA)

Large-scale industrial units are used for cannabis farms but also empty residential homes.

Police say the buildings can become dangerous as a result of fire risks, unlawful abstraction of electricity, fumes and water damage.

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