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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,538
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The UK's secret cannabis farms
#7783755 - 12/20/07 10:28 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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The UK's secret cannabis farms December 20, 2007 - BBC
Hundreds if not thousands of cannabis farms have been established in upmarket houses in the UK by criminal gangs who could be serving an international market.
Every weekday morning somewhere in Britain a team of police officers will be assembling to raid a cannabis farm.
The first few cannabis farms - sited in ordinary houses, stripped out and completely turned over to plants - were discovered in London six years ago.
Now they have been found in 41 of the 43 police force areas in England and Wales and in five of the eight Scottish ones.
The Metropolitan Police have raided 1,500 cannabis farms in the past two years, Strathclyde police 61 in the past nine months, and in Derbyshire police closed 200 last year.
Wealthy neighbourhoods
One, on the outskirts of Ripley in Derbyshire, was only discovered when it caught fire. It was in a detached house, built in the 1930s among well-kept properties with landscaped gardens.
"It was such a shock," one old woman told me.
"The new owner had knocked on our door to introduce himself, and he seemed such a respectable oriental gentleman.
"We had no idea about any cannabis and we think it is a disgrace. It has lowered the tone of this neighbourhood. It is dragging us all down."
Gangs are targeting neighbourhoods with high quality housing, which they turn over to cannabis production.
"They avoid the social exclusion areas which attract a lot of police attention, and go for a quiet neighbourhood where people don't necessarily know a great deal about each other," says Strathclyde's Detective Chief Superintendent Stephen Whitlock.
"These criminals can afford to set up in places where homes typically fetch between half a million and three quarters of a million pounds. It is such a cash-rich crop."
To add to the challenges facing police, they often find that door handles have been rigged to live electricity cables as a booby-trap deterrent to keep out rival gangs who might steal the crop.
Vietnamese gangs
What the cultivations have in common is how well organised and planned they appear. Bill Stupples, from the Merseyside Drug Support Team, described an almost factory-like environment where all of the plants are at the same stage.
"In the old days you might get a local entrepreneur growing cannabis. He'd have one big old gnarled looking plant and he'd be using that to take cuttings, then there'd be a few straggly plants at different stages and finally he'd be drying the flower heads and the leaves.
Now we only ever find the middle bit of the operation - no cuttings, no drying room. But they must be out there somewhere - a huge nursery operation and a big drying plant."
This way of growing cannabis was invented by the Vietnamese and they now control an estimated 60% of the UK's cannabis supply.
According to the United Nations, the opportunity to serve a world market in the drug arose when a successful government eradication programme in Morocco cut exports from that country by a third.
"They spotted a gap in the market and the network of Vietnamese criminals moved in. They found that they had an advantage as they were off the radar, initially, of law enforcement," said Commander Allan Gibson from the Association of Chief Police Officers.
Electricity dependence
One possibility is that the Vietnamese have come from Canada, which has had some success in countering similar criminal activity.
Police in the city of Surrey in British Colombia have found that the cannabis growers have an Achilles heel - their dependence on high levels of mains electricity.
A thousand suspect homes were identified, either from their very high usage or their very low usage, if they were bypassing the meter. Of 600 homes inspected so far, nine out of 10 turned out to be house cannabis farms.
The farms feature improvised wiring, heat lamps and water and regularly catch fire so the authorities have been able to use fire safety laws to force home owners to carry out costly safety work.
That has allowed them to move far more quickly and effectively than using the criminal law, and the number of cannabis farms in Surrey, British Colombia is finally coming down.
"If you can hit the house owners hard in the pocket every time, they are much more vigilant about who is renting from them," says Darryl Plecas, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University College of the Fraser Valley.
"You may not be able to stop this but you can move the problem elsewhere. We say jokingly, let's move it on to the UK, where they are doing nothing, like we were five years ago. Let the cannabis growers go there."
The rise in the UK production comes at a time when consumption of cannabis is actually slightly down.
"There is a market for it in the UK but when you think about the amount that is being grown there is too much, it must be going somewhere else," says Detective Inspector Bill Stupples from Merseyside Police.
"It wouldn't surprise me if it was being sent to France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands or wherever."
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Ego Death
Justadropofwaterinanendlesssea


Registered: 04/27/03
Posts: 10,447
Loc: The War Machine
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Re: The UK's secret cannabis farms [Re: veggie]
#7783884 - 12/20/07 10:59 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
"There is a market for it in the UK but when you think about the amount that is being grown there is too much, it must be going somewhere else," says Detective Inspector Bill Stupples from Merseyside Police.
"It wouldn't surprise me if it was being sent to France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands or wherever."
Dumbass, the market here is huge.
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Chemy
Jesus is Lord

Registered: 10/05/07
Posts: 6,276
Loc: A Church
Last seen: 14 years, 5 months
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Re: The UK's secret cannabis farms *DELETED* [Re: Ego Death]
#7784018 - 12/20/07 11:36 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Post deleted by ChemyReason for deletion: If you are sure you want to do this, click the button below.
Yes, I want to delete this post.
-------------------- Alcoholics Anonymous Narcotics Anonymous Get help, help is free and available 24/7/365. God bless you all and I hope you receive the help you need to turn away from your lives of sin. Mushrooms and drugs make you gay, you can reverse this homosexual condition with rehab, get help! Stop being gay!
Edited by Chemy (12/21/07 12:45 AM)
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andrewss
precariously aggrandized


Registered: 08/17/07
Posts: 8,725
Loc: ohio
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Re: The UK's secret cannabis farms [Re: Chemy]
#7784502 - 12/21/07 04:17 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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exported eh.... haha
-------------------- Jesus loves you.
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kidaihuan
First Growery Ban



Registered: 07/25/07
Posts: 3,173
Loc: Shanghai, China
Last seen: 13 years, 7 months
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Re: The UK's secret cannabis farms [Re: Chemy]
#7784604 - 12/21/07 05:58 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Chemy said:
Quote:
"It wouldn't surprise me if it was being sent to France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands or wherever."
Growing weed in the UK to export to the NL, According to these idiots the US is probably growing coca leaf for export to Columbia.
What do you think the Coca-Cola company does with their extracted cocaine?
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SunshineSuperman
Mad Hatter



Registered: 01/16/07
Posts: 415
Loc: Shangri La
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Re: The UK's secret cannabis farms [Re: kidaihuan]
#7785378 - 12/21/07 12:02 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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 Psht...I could smoke that in a day.  
Yes I'm back!
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BrAiN
Art Fag


Registered: 03/01/01
Posts: 6,875
Loc: Chocolate City
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Has anyone ever thought about using solar power for light to grow weed? It keeps you from having to expose the plants to plain view without having to use regular sunlight.. plus you don't have to worry about the eletric company keeping records of how much electricity you use.
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shroomzi8
king of the wild fronteer



Registered: 10/04/10
Posts: 1,764
Loc: Valencia, Spain
Last seen: 7 years, 6 months
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Re: The UK's secret cannabis farms [Re: BrAiN]
#13467768 - 11/11/10 08:50 AM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
BrAiN said: Has anyone ever thought about using solar power for light to grow weed? It keeps you from having to expose the plants to plain view without having to use regular sunlight.. plus you don't have to worry about the electric company keeping records of how much electricity you use.
not gonna happen dude. the power stored from sunshine cant provide enough high wattage oomph to start the ballast then keep it on for 24 hrs constant for vegetative growth. you would need an huge or a shitload of turbines for a relatively low output. the cost of doing this would be prohibititve. even an hybrid wind /solar system wouldn't have the power. then you gotta store the power somewhere. batteries are usual. then you gotta convert the battery power (usually24vdc) to 240vac(uk) needing a big old inverter. not cheap either. with the space this would take up and the limited use it would provide, you would be much better off with a generator. i tried the above system some time ago. really its the 24hrs of however many 1000 watt hps/mh lights that makes it impossible. sorry, dont give up tho, the weed world needs thinkers and inventors. mahalos
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Rabid Jelly Bean
Stranger



Registered: 01/25/10
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Re: The UK's secret cannabis farms [Re: shroomzi8]
#13471812 - 11/12/10 12:18 AM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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What is with the British and their community image issues? They're always worrying about everyone looking nice or it somehow reflects badly on them.
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TheHandOfDoom
Sister Fister


Registered: 12/07/08
Posts: 802
Last seen: 11 years, 9 months
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They are the British dude... They have tea-time and crumpets and that old ass queen of their's. They're tryin to keep it classy dawg... And Vietnamese gangs growing weed sound scary to old british people...
Quote:
"The new owner had knocked on our door to introduce himself, and he seemed such a respectable oriental gentleman.
"We had no idea about any cannabis and we think it is a disgrace. It has lowered the tone of this neighbourhood. It is dragging us all down."
This old lady seems like your typical old british bitty. Fucking worried how its gonna look on her, and how much her propety values gonna go down lol. I also hate how she said oriental gentleman... It bothers me when people need to define one another based on differences that are a non-issue really. I hope that generation dies off soon...
Edited by TheHandOfDoom (11/12/10 01:37 AM)
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1tokeovrtheline
life=painfully beautiful



Registered: 04/12/10
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Loc: innerverse&universe, surrealis...
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I personally think the whole "UK problem" is just that its easier to find the farms there, I mean I used to grow but I never got busted cuz I used LEDs which gives off almost no heat, carbon filters, and ozone generators, and most of all because I live in the middle of nowhere basically, but the UK seems to be pretty active in taking down cannabis growers compared to the US which seems to be more about trying to take out dealers and growers through snitches. For one thing I have noticed that weed is often 60 an eighth in the UK, which does not sound like a place abundant in the green to me. With all that said the UK does have some good grows, and its interesting to see some of the more impressive shit going on there, and I'm always happy to see some underground UK genetics.
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Music, business as usual Mi' spliff and Guiness as usual Highgrade we puffin as usual Fight down the system as usual The system fight we down as usual The cops dem a watch we as usual And a we a watch the cops as usual
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shroomzi8
king of the wild fronteer



Registered: 10/04/10
Posts: 1,764
Loc: Valencia, Spain
Last seen: 7 years, 6 months
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even in the middle of nowhere in uk you are still relatively close to somewhere. usa is big and bits of it seem very sparsley populated. we only got a small country here, so we have to resort to ever more elaborate ways of growing. saying that the laws here are not as draconian as the usa pot laws. i really thought pot seeds would be legal in usa. then again i did get that info from watching cheech n chongs up in smoke! mahalos
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