‘We have stopped a substantial amount of drugs from getting onto our streets’ - cannabis factory containing hundreds of plants shut down in Stoke-on-Trent

Police found hundreds of cannabis plants at a building in Stoke-on-Trent. 

Officers were called out to the property on Bucknall New Road in Hanley at 6.50am on Friday morning (April 2) following reports of suspicious activity outside the premises. 

And on arrival around 700 plants were found, spread across a number of rooms, with the electricity supply also tampered with to power the cannabis factory. 

Sergeant Charlie Emmett, deputy commander of Stoke-on-Trent North Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “This represents another cannabis factory shut down and a substantial amount of drugs stopped from going out onto the streets.

“Like many of these set-ups, this represented a danger to the public due to how the electricity into the building had been tampered with.

“This came about following concerns over suspicious activity in the area and we are always grateful to the public for sharing such concerns with us.”

Following the discovery a 24-year-old man and 15-year-old boy were arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the production of cannabis. They were later released under investigation while enquiries continue. 

Anyone with any information should message Staffordshire Police on Facebook or Twitter quoting incident number 0081 of April 2, call 101 or alternatively contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.