Teh One Who Knocks
10-17-2013, 11:57 AM
By Paul Cockerton - The Mirror
http://i.imgur.com/bKD3km5.png
Heat-sensitive cameras on a police helicopter helped officers to track down a cannabis factory on the tenth floor of a tower block.
The sensors detected unusually high temperatures seeping from the walls of the high-rise home in Nechells’ South Tower in Birmingham.
‘Glowing’ properties picked up on the high-tech equipment are a tell-tale sign of cannabis production as the plants require significant heat and light input to grow.
Air operations staff alerted neighbourhood police on the ground and, days later, officers raided the address and discovered 143 cannabis plants.
Benjamin Edwards was arrested and charged with cannabis cultivation.
At Birmingham Crown Court, last week a judge sentenced him to two years in prison, suspended for 24 months, and ordered him to attend a three-month drug rehab course.
The 28-year-old was also made subject of a two-year supervision order and told to pay £100 costs.
West Midlands Police Deputy Air Operations Manager Martin Knowles, said: “The crew were heading back from a search in the Solihull area when they noticed a clear heat source at a flat in Nechells.
“Our thermal cameras can detect unusually high temperatures coming from properties several thousand feet away – anyone growing cannabis on a commercial scale, using rows of heat lamps, runs the very real risk their criminality will be rumbled from the skies.”
The drugs den was caught on camera just after 10.30pm on Thursday, May 2, as the helicopter made its way back to Birmingham Airport after providing air support in the search for a wanted man in Acocks Green.
Police search teams found the plants – which had potential to yield drugs with a street value of around £30,000 – scattered throughout the Nechells flat which had been modified to accommodate light, irrigation and ventilation systems.
Large drugs farms uncovered in the West Midlands are made safe and dismantled by the force’s Cannabis Disposal Team – a specialist unit that’s closed down 399 such factories so far this year and taken almost £30-million worth of drugs off the region’s streets.
Disposal Team Manager Mike Hall, added: “We know how much upset drug dealing causes in our communities…it attracts an undesirable element, tends to be linked to wider acquisitive crime and is a real concern, especially for families.
“No-one should be expected to live with drug dealing on their doorstep – we’re responding to community concerns, acting on the information they provide, and shutting down more and more drugs production facilities.”
http://i.imgur.com/bKD3km5.png
Heat-sensitive cameras on a police helicopter helped officers to track down a cannabis factory on the tenth floor of a tower block.
The sensors detected unusually high temperatures seeping from the walls of the high-rise home in Nechells’ South Tower in Birmingham.
‘Glowing’ properties picked up on the high-tech equipment are a tell-tale sign of cannabis production as the plants require significant heat and light input to grow.
Air operations staff alerted neighbourhood police on the ground and, days later, officers raided the address and discovered 143 cannabis plants.
Benjamin Edwards was arrested and charged with cannabis cultivation.
At Birmingham Crown Court, last week a judge sentenced him to two years in prison, suspended for 24 months, and ordered him to attend a three-month drug rehab course.
The 28-year-old was also made subject of a two-year supervision order and told to pay £100 costs.
West Midlands Police Deputy Air Operations Manager Martin Knowles, said: “The crew were heading back from a search in the Solihull area when they noticed a clear heat source at a flat in Nechells.
“Our thermal cameras can detect unusually high temperatures coming from properties several thousand feet away – anyone growing cannabis on a commercial scale, using rows of heat lamps, runs the very real risk their criminality will be rumbled from the skies.”
The drugs den was caught on camera just after 10.30pm on Thursday, May 2, as the helicopter made its way back to Birmingham Airport after providing air support in the search for a wanted man in Acocks Green.
Police search teams found the plants – which had potential to yield drugs with a street value of around £30,000 – scattered throughout the Nechells flat which had been modified to accommodate light, irrigation and ventilation systems.
Large drugs farms uncovered in the West Midlands are made safe and dismantled by the force’s Cannabis Disposal Team – a specialist unit that’s closed down 399 such factories so far this year and taken almost £30-million worth of drugs off the region’s streets.
Disposal Team Manager Mike Hall, added: “We know how much upset drug dealing causes in our communities…it attracts an undesirable element, tends to be linked to wider acquisitive crime and is a real concern, especially for families.
“No-one should be expected to live with drug dealing on their doorstep – we’re responding to community concerns, acting on the information they provide, and shutting down more and more drugs production facilities.”