Cannabis plant seizures rise in regional crackdown
Nearly 20,000 more cannabis plants were seized in the West Midlands this year, compared to last, new figures show.
Statistics released by the Home Office show a total of 351,881 plants were confiscated this year, with a fifth alone being found in the West Midlands.
This area alone ranked up a haul of 67,776 over the last 12 months, an increase of almost 19,000 from 2017, with the UK as a whole seeing a rise of 9.4 per cent in drugs busts compared to the previous year.
Staffordshire saw the biggest increase in the region with almost 10,000 more drug busts, whereas other West Midlands regions had an increase of 1,712.
Increase
The West Midlands figures also included data from Warwickshire and West Mercia forces.
The increase in cannabis plant busts in the West Midlands was three times the figures for London, whereas the East Midlands saw 20,000 fewer plants seized than the year before.
This follows a number of cannabis factory busts across the region in the last few months.
In July police discovered between 200 and 300 cannabis plants worth an estimated £150,000 growing inside a house in Wellington, Telford.
In August a total of 469 plants were discovered in a factory unit, in High Street, Smethwick.
Elsewhere £2.5 million worth of cannabis was uncovered at an old factory in Brownhills Business Park, in Stoke-on-Trent.
