UK: Southend drugs bust: £2m cannabis haul is town’s biggest find

Officers managed to seize 403 plants on the day, in addition to the 3,324 plants already found across three other raids, bringing the total to 3,727.

The drugs are estimated to be worth more than £2million on the streets.

Four raids have now been carried out on the same place.

Chief Insp Ian Hughes, district commander for Southend, said: “The reason why we do this is there’s multiple warrants out for that location.

“As we are finding more intelligence, we need a multiple entry warrant to the addresses.

“It started about two weeks ago with the first incredible find of about 3,000 plants, this is the fourth lot of warrants we have done.

“From my personal knowledge of 16 years living in Southend this is the most significant cannabis cultivation set up we have ever had in our town and borough, and it’s likely to be the same kind of statistic for Essex.”

Mr Hughes asked residents to keep reporting suspicions to them to assemble the jigsaw of crimes in the area.

He added: “We are continuing to follow it up from a community policing perspective by advising residents of criminal activity in their area, to provide the reassurance and an example of community information leading police to discoveries.

“It’s a fantastic result and has taken a huge amount of effort. It will have made a huge dent in the pockets of the perpetrators.

“It is also about encouraging people to talk to the police and while they may not see a knee jerk reaction it will form part of the bigger picture in the long run.”

Emiljan Gjura, 31, of no fixed address and Ermir Reshiti, 35, also of no fixed address, have been charged with being concerned in the supply of Class B drugs in connection with the investigation.

Source:  https://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/18437036.southend-drugs-bust-2m-cannabis-haul-towns-biggest-find/