Cannabis plants worth £100k hidden in house

Hundreds of plants were found packed into three bedrooms on the first floor of the terraced house in Flaxhall Road, Alumwell, Walsall. More were found in the loft. Four people were caught fleeing the property. Three are being quizzed over the break-in, while the fourth is suspected of being a 'gardener', overseeing the care of the cannabis plants.

Local officers from Walsall were called to the scene in the early hours of yesterday after receiving a 999 call from a passer-by reporting a burglary in progress in the Pleck area.

They found at least 200 mature plants growing in a hydroponics system on the first and second floors of the property and a further 80 younger plants.

Detective Inspector Tom Chisolm, head of a new drugs investigation team at West Midlands Police, revealed they were dealing with similar finds at the rate of 10 a week.

Police found large ducting tubes suspended from the ceiling in each room which pumped the strong fumes from the fast-maturing plants up the chimney.

Holes had been punched through walls to accommodate the pipes. A network of wiring carried electricity from the mains supply to huge circuit boards in each room, powering special high wattage lights on a timer cycle.

Bags of fertiliser were scattered around and laundry bags in which to transport the plants were found. Officers are now investigating whether the house was suspected by the intruders of containing cannabis.

DI Chisolm said: "Organised crime gangs often steal off each other and if they get wind of this kind of set-up in a residential street they will wait until the plants are at a mature stage and about to be cropped.

"We don't know yet what has happened here but we will be pursuing this line of inquiry."