Drug farms raided within hours of each other (From Sutton Guardian)

Police raid cannabis factories in Sutton and Carshalton

3:38pm Thursday 7th March 2013 in News By Mike Pyle

Two cannabis factories were busted within hours of each other yesterday.
 

Police raided the factories in Carshalton Road, Sutton, and Mill Lane, Carshalton, after tip-offs from neighbours.
 

Now officers have appealed to other members of the public to be vigilant and to call them if they have any suspicions about drug activity in their area.
 

The first raid, in Carshalton Road, happened after a neighbour reported water leaking into her home from the flat above. Officers arrived, forced entry to the flat and found several mature cannabis plants and a tent filled with younger specimens at around 4.25pm.
 

A 31-year-old man who arrived while police were searching the property was arrested on suspicion of producing a class B drug and possessing cannabis.
 

Police raided the property in Mill Lane at 9.45pm. Once inside, they found a large tent containing trays of cannabis buds being dried out. In another room they found cannabis ready to be harvested. There was no-one at the address at the time and no-one has been arrested.
 

Chief Inspector Nick Collins said: "Residents are rightly concerned when they believe that drugs are being bought, sold and grown in their neighbourhoods. We have been actively encouraging residents to pass on any information they have about suspicious individuals and addresses.
 

"This information is developed by local police teams and combined with information from our own intelligence unit, results in the drugs raids and operations that we carry out on a regular basis around the borough.
 

"Residents should not have to put up with drugs related activities on their doorstep. Drugs are a blight on local communities and only tend to encourage more crime.
 

"We want to continue to encourage residents to help us and we will continue to be robust and relentless in the pursuit of anyone involved in drugs related crime to make our communities safer."
 

If you have any information about drug activity in your area, you can call police on 101 or the charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.