UK police confiscate about £130m worth of cannabis
UK Police confiscate about £130m worth of cannabis plants and detained nearly 1,000 people in the UK’s largest-ever crackdown on organised crime.
Officers even seized 20 guns, £636,000 in cash and 20kg of cocaine, with a possible street worth of £1m.
UK police confiscate £130m worth of cannabis across England and Wales in June:
Over 180,000 plants were found in raids across England and Wales in June.
The operation has been defined as the “most significant” ever executed across UK law enforcement.
Operation Mille targeted what law enforcement considers a cash cow for organised crime gangs (OCGs) concerned with other crimes such as money laundering, Class A drug smuggling and violence.
Cannabis is a Class B narcotic, not Class A like heroin or cocaine, but large-scale cannabis cultivation is considered a critical source of illegal revenue for criminal gangs.
The month-long process sought to disrupt OCGs by taking out a key source of their income, knowing those involved and collecting intelligence on how the networks run.
Steve Jupp, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for Serious and Organised Crime, stated the operation had “successfully disrupted a significant amount of criminal activity”.
“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,” he stated.
“The intelligence gathered will also help inform future law enforcement nationwide.”
About 11,000 officials from all 43 police forces in England and Wales, as well as the National Crime Agency and Immigration Enforcement, united over 1,000 warrants in June.
Of those charged, around 450 people have since been arrested.
“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,” Mr Jupp continued.
