VIDEO: Police raid cannabis farm at allotment in Castleford

Police raided a cannabis farm at an allotment in Castleford this week.

Between 20 and 30 plants were found in a building at the allotment, just off Methley Road, at around 8am on Monday.

A team of around 20 officers from Castleford and Normanton and Featherstone neighbourhood policing teams, Wakefield CID and West Yorkshire Police’s Operation Support Unit carried out the raid.

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PC Craig Steel, officer in charge of the raid, said: “We have found up to 30 plants at this plot.

“We know the owner of the plot and we will be actively seeking to arrest him.”

Officers also seized a vehicle and a number of dogs at the site.

PC Steel said: “All this came about from community intelligence which allowed us to successfully execute the warrant.

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“Intelligence from the public is vital because without it we wouldn’t be able to find the basis of the information or do as good a job as we do now.

“About 80 or 90 per cent of the work we do comes from tip-offs and information from the public.

People might think that what they know is useless information but to us it could be the missing piece of the jigsaw and lead to successful raids such as this one.”

PC Steel said police had been working on the investigation for about four weeks prior to the raid.

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He added: “Community intelligence suggested that cannabis was being grown at the location and then we contacted other departments including the force helicopter to get as much information as we could.

“The helicopter detected a strong heat source from the site and that’s what led to the raid.

“It is a very secure and sophisticated set-up that we have brought to an end with this raid.”