Cleveland Police tackling growing problem of cannabis farms

Cleveland Police raided a number of addresses in Hartlepool as they attempt to disrupt the supply of the Class B drug.

The gangs are using terraced houses in the town to set up their budding cannabis farms and quite often installing illegal immigrants to tend the valuable crops.

Dozens of cannabis plants growing inside a house in Hartlepool (Image: Graeme Hetherington, The Northern Echo)

Inside one of the properties they discovered a suspected Albanian illegal immigrant who was hidden behind a secret door on the ground floor of the terraces house.

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Cannabis plants were growing in rooms throughout the building and officers dismantled the specialist equipment that had been fitted to cultivate the drug.

Officers discovered that the electric meters in the properties had been bypassed and the gangs had taken effort to try and block windows to prevent prying eyes capturing what they were up to.

Incense sticks used to mask smell of cannabis farms (Image: Graeme Hetherington, The Northern Echo)

Throughout the cannabis farms there were countless cans of air freshener and incense sticks used to try and mask the pungent smell coming from the buildings.

Last week, Teesside Crown Court heard how one farm inside the derelict Corner House pub was connected to the ‘Albanian Mafia’.

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When police raided the building in October, they discovered 816 cannabis plants worth £685,000 growing inside.

Two Albanian men, who were illegal immigrants, were looking after the plants in the boarded-up building on Avenue Road near the Hartlepool United ground and a probation office. One of them said that the drugs were linked to the Albanian Mafia and that they would kill him.

The men Ali Boza, 46, and 32-year-old Julian Immeri were both jailed for 18 months after they pleaded guilty to the production of cannabis and were told they would be deported back to Albania after serving half their sentences.