Smith's Wood men jailed after cannabis factory is uncovered

BUSTED: Officers discovered the plants inside the small
flat.  Photo/West Midlands Police.

TWO local men have been jailed, after police discovered £72,000 worth of cannabis in a two-bedroom flat.
Daniel Carter, 22, and Jamie Elkin, 26, were convicted of producing the Class B drug and sentenced to 22 months in prison.
The pair, both of Starling Grove, Smith’s Wood, had been cultivating the crop inside the cramped property.
But the illegal enterprise was uncovered by officers from the Smith’s Wood and Castle Bromwich Neighbourhood Team last year.
Photos posted by the team earlier today showed a “jungle” of cannabis plants and the sophisticated equipment used to nurture them.
Carter and Elkin were sentenced by the courts last week and the plants have been incinerated at a special "waste to energy" plant, in line with force policy.

Cannabis Factories: It was revealed only this week that West Midlands Police seized 52,218 cannabis plants in the space of just 12 months and increasingly officers are uncovering factories designed to grow the drug on an industrial scale. While the set-up in Smith’s Wood was confined to a single property, some gangs use several addresses at a time. Often police deploy thermal imaging equipment to discover factories, as well as relying on more traditional methods of detection. A few years ago I accompanied a pair of PCSOs on a patrol of Smith’s Wood and they told me that the pungent smell of the drug could sometimes lead officers straight to an offender’s front door.
If you have information about possible drug offences in your area, contact your local neighbourhood team on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.