VIETNAMESE crime gangs who build cannabis factories in unassuming homes may have returned to Plymouth after a three year absence.
Acting on information from locals, police carried out a Misuse of Drugs Act warrant at a property in Dixon Place, Stoke at around 9am on Monday.
Once inside officers found a total of 406 cannabis plants – 92 1m tall plants in one room, 44 similar sized plants in a second, 43 1m plants in a third and in the attic a further 89 1m plants were found.
The basement held an additional 138 seedling marijuana plants being grown in a propagator.
A spokesman for police said the mature plants were "close to being harvested" and there was "lots of evidence of previous harvests" at the property.
Plymouth's Drugs Liaison Officer, Det Con Simon Rawlinson, said a conservative estimate of the value of the current yield would have been around "£150,000 per quarter", with the property being capable of producing £600,000 or more worth of cannabis per year.
Police have revealed two people may have been staying at the property, although no-one has been arrested.
One resident in the street said neighbours had been area had been aware of the smell of cannabis for some time and they were convinced the occupants of the property were Vietnamese.
He said: "It has been a burden to everyone around Keyham and Stoke for the last four months.
"It has been driving them bonkers because they can smell it but they can't work out whose garden it is in. People have been reporting it for months.
"When you come over Stoke park down to Pasley Street the scent is so strong. Passers-by look over people's walls in the back lanes thinking 'where is the smell coming from?' It was that potent.
"Because there were no arrests they think it was Vietnamese that have done a runner."
Police have said there is evidence within the property and the style of the set-up, with specific grow-lights, electrical positioning of cables and transformers, foil-covered walls, electrical abstraction straight into power main cables, which were similar to previous Vietnamese set ups found in Plymouth, although police say they are keeping an open mind as inquiries continue.
Police have said electrical utility workers were at the Stoke location at 3am the same morning, cutting power to the property, in preparation of the police arrival.
In September 2008 police found the very first Vietnamese-run cannabis factory in the South West in Houndiscombe Road, Mutley. Along with around 400 cannabis plants they arrested a 21-year-old Vietnamese man who acted as 'caretaker' on behalf of a man he only knew of as 'The Boss'.
He had been driven to the city two weeks after arriving in Britain with the promise of work to pay off a debt. He was taken to the Mutley property which has already been set up as a cannabis factory, shown how to tend the plants and what to do if the police came.
Vietnamese crime gangs have long since plagued the UK and other countries.
Interpol – the world's largest international police organisation – recognised the Vietnamese gangs were operating in Europe, the USA and Canada.
According to a study by national charity Drugscope the number of cannabis factories in the UK trebled between 2005 and 2007. Analysis of police raids found up to 75 percent of cannabis farms were allegedly run by Vietnamese gangs.
In May this year the charity Crimestoppers claimed the number of Vietnamese cannabis factories in the UK has grown by 150 percent in the last two years.
Policing groups, such as the National Crime Agency have noted how the UK-based Vietnamese crime gangs have begun to diversify their criminal enterprises, often employing trafficked children.
Recent studies have found that children make up nearly a quarter of the estimated 13,000 people trafficked into the UK every year, and Vietnamese children are the largest group of children trafficked to the UK.
According to a 2014 report by the non-governmental organisation AntiSlavery International, almost all potential victims of trafficking linked to cannabis are Vietnamese, and more than 80 percent are children.
The modus operandi for the gangs is usually to run around a dozen cannabis factories in rented residential properties in a town or city, spreading the risk if they lose a handful to discovery by the police.
The properties are invariably rented with payments up to six months or even a year in advance. Each is then prepared by a small team, dangerously cutting into the mains to steal electricity to power the energy-sapping lights and fans, and often buying equipment such as foil, cabling and venting pipes in bulk from DIY stores.
One 'caretaker' – often a young man who has been trafficked into the UK – is left to look after the property and the plants, preparing them for harvests up to four times a year. Black bin bags full of dried cannabis plants are taken away in the dead of night by more senior members of the crime gangs.
After the first factory was found in September 2008, a further ten were found by police in and around Plymouth within the next four weeks, including one in a large property in Lockington Avenue, Mannamead, which held around 1,500 plants.
Police are urging landlords to regularly check out their properties if they have any concerns.
A police spokesman said: "You should be visiting your property regularly. If you are offered up-front payments and asked not to visit you should be suspicious.
"The Stoke property will need substantial work to repair the damage done to it and it is to any landlord's advantage to be aware of what to look out for so they are not left having to deal with large repair bills."
In 2008 a guide, entitled 'Keeping illegal drugs out of rental properties', was offered to landlords. Written with the assistance of Merseyside and Derbyshire police forces as well as the Association of Chief Police Officers' Drugs Standing Working Group, the guide warned of tell-tale signs of cannabis factories.
Landlords were warned to look out for blacked-out windows, a sudden jump in electricity bills, excessive strengthening of doors and windows against unwanted entry, unusually high humidity, large ducting tubes and bin bags full of vegetable material.
The guide also stated how drug-cultivating tenants had a tendency to pay bills up-front in cash, but requested their landlord did not visit the premises.
As in a number of previous cases in Plymouth homes, some drug criminals employed a 'front couple' or even a 'front family'.
They appeared to be 'a genuine, average, respectable couple seeking to rent a property for their own use'.
However, after taking possession of the property they would vanish, and are quickly replaced by the drug gang members.
The city's landlords are being urged to take notice of the neighbours' complaints and exchange phone numbers with immediate neighbours. They are also advised to check on their premises every few weeks and alert police if they become suspicious or are unable to enter the building.
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