Police Helicopter Seeks Out Cannabis Factories

THIS is the "white hot" evidence gathered by police that is being used to smash secret cannabis factories in Birmingham. (see source link for photos)

Glowing brightly against the night sky, a semi-detached home in the east of the city stands apart from its neighbours.

But that isn't a snow-covered roof - the footage from the police helicopter's thermal imaging camera actually shows the massive amount of heat being given off by a large scale cannabis factory.

Commercial-sized cannabis growing factories have sprung up in unimposing residential streets in recent years. But the police helicopter is now being regularly used to pinpoint heat being given off by the super-strong lights needed to cultivate the plants.

It has already been used in many successful operations including in Stechford, where factories have been located and people convicted and jailed.

Airborne police said the images highlighted how their on-board technology was helping to target those responsible for peddling drugs on the streets.

Sgt Paul Farley, Unit Executive Officer for the Air Operations Unit, said: "This was one of the biggest heat sources we have seen. It looked like snow on the roof.

"You have to bear in mind the production of the drug requires a tremendous amount of heat and light, which is what we look for. You can see from neighbouring houses a little bit of heat being emitted but there was a significant heat source from this property, it was markedly different. You couldn't miss it really."

He added: "This sort of image is used by officers on the ground to get the authority of the courts in order to execute search warrants."

Police have seen an explosion in the number of cannabis factories set up in houses in the West Midlands.

Drugs barons get people to pose as respectable families in order to rent out properties but then convert rooms into giant greenhouses with cannabis plants growing in virtually every room.

To avoid the massive electricity bills needed to pay for the heating, they often bypass the meter. It is estimated the factories regularly turn over tens of thousands of pounds worth of the drug which are then sold on the streets.

Sgt Farley said the helicopter is called in by officers investigating the existence of drugs factories in a bid to confirm their suspicions.

The helicopter makes sweeps of the roof-tops in the hunt for the tell-tale heat sources. The images are then used secure search warrants.

Sgt Farley said that no matter what the gangs did to cover their illegal tracks the drug factories still stood out a mile.

He said: "I am sure they do their very best to try to suppress the heat but heat has to escape from the building somewhere. It can't just disappear and if it is diverted somewhere else we'll spot it."

The helicopter has been used in several high-profile operations across the city recently.

Earlier this year, police seized £250,000 from a property in Quinton and found several hundred cannabis plants with a street value of nearly £250,000.

The house looked so much like an ordinary semi that neighbours even sent Christmas cards to the new tenants unaware they had turned it into a drugs factory.

Last March police recovered £300,000 worth of cannabis from a Victorian property in Station Road, Stechford. More than 1,000 plants were being grown in 14 rooms. Two Vietnamese men were later jailed for three years for cannabis production.

A few weeks later police in Stechford smashed more cannabis factories after raiding a number of other addresses in the area.

And in July police called to deal with a minor street row found a string of houses across Birmingham and Warwickshire turned into cannabis factories. At one house they found 1,200 plants.