Police officers smashed through the door of a cannabis farm as part of a multi-force day of action targeting serious and organised crime.
Merseyside Police officers smashed through the front door of a terraced house in the Rice Lane area after acting on intelligence that it was home to a large scale cannabis farm. During the warrant an Albanian man, aged 28, was arrested on suspicion of cultivation of cannabis after 400 plants over four rooms were uncovered by officers.
The warrant was one of five carried out in the Merseyside region this morning, Monday, October 17 as part of Operation Crossbow. The operation's day of action, involving more than 200 officers from Merseyside Police, Cheshire Constabulary and British Transport Police, is targeting serious and organised crime.
READ MORE: Updates as police raid homes linked to serious organised crime
Officers from each force's roads policing unit, dog section, county lines teams and neighbourhood policing officers are carrying out search warrants, targeting illegal vehicles and criminals using the roads and rail network. The visible presence comes off the back of the recent serious violence in Merseyside, which included three fatal shootings including nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel.
The ECHO accompanied Merseyside Police officers this morning on the raid at the cannabis farm. Several officers smashed through the front door and arrested the 28-year-old man who was detained near the back of the property.
A police drone hovered over the building and two officers waited in the alleyway behind the property. Neighbours, woken to the noise of the raid, watched from their front doors and windows.
The officers discovered a huge cannabis farm spread across four rooms of the property. Later that morning officers carried out another warrant in Rocky Lane, Childwall recovering another 300 cannabis plants. Two men, aged 34 and 38, were arrested on suspicion of cultivation of cannabis.
Further arrests were made at other locations for possession of controlled drugs and money laundering. All arrested people were taken to police stations across Merseyside where they remain in custody for questioning.
Inspector Ian Peacock, who led the morning's operation in the Rice Lane area, told the ECHO he was expecting around 20 warrants to be carried out across the Merseyside region targeting criminals involved in organised and serious crime.
The ECHO then accompanied officers from Merseyside Police to Halton where over 200 officers from a number of police forces were deployed to the region's road networks in a bid to disrupt criminals at the county border.
Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy told officers: "This is a fantastic opportunity to take the fight back to our criminals. It is absolutely about the relentless pursuit of the criminals who blight our communities."
A convoy of over 50 vehicles, including a scrambler bike unit and an underwater diver unit, rolled out of the DCBL Stadium in an impressive show of strength. But Cheshire Police's Chief Superintendent Alison Ross was quick to stress the operation was what officers from across multiple forces were doing every day.
CS Ross said: " Operation Crossbow is our joint response to policing the region's borders including those who use road and rail networks to commit criminality and to send a strong message to individuals associated with or linked to serious and organised crime. The operation builds on the hundreds of arrests that have occurred in Merseyside following the serious violence that involved three fatal shootings and to further prevent criminals who may choose to move their criminality into other neighbouring areas as a result of the disruption."
The ECHO asked CS Ross how important intelligence from the public was in the pursuit of organised and serious criminals. CS Ross said: "Members of the public are our best source of intelligence. We're telling our officers that we're targeting the criminals but also interacting with the public to understand what their concerns are and if there's any intelligence that can be passed on."
Chief Inspector Paul Sutcliffe, from Merseyside Police, also sent a message of warning to criminals in the Merseyside and Cheshire area. CI Sutcliffe said: "We will do everything to hunt you down, lock you up and take you to justice for picking on individual victims in our society."
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