Four people arrested and drugs recovered during Mansfield raids

As part of Operation Reacher’s continued crackdown on drug supply, officers raided four addresses in Mansfield shortly after 8am yesterday morning, executing warrants at houses in Dallas Street, Victoria Street, Goldsmith Street and Padley Hill.

Nearly 300 well established cannabis plants were discovered at the address in Dallas Street, along with an array of sophisticated growing equipment.

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The plants, worth tens of thousands of pounds, will now be removed by a specialist dismantling team and the equipment put beyond use.

Growing equipment was also found at the addresses in Goldsmith Street and Padley Hill, along with evidence of previous crops.

Two men and a woman were arrested at the property in Victoria Street on suspicion of conspiracy to supply a class B drug. Investigations are ongoing.

The raids came just 24 hours after officers found more than 600 plants at a premises in West Gate, where a 28-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of drugs offences and later released under investigation. Left undiscovered the grow had a street value of more than £350,000.

Sergeant Jay Lee, from the Mansfield Operation Reacher team that led this morning’s raids, said: “This morning we raided four local properties that we believed were linked to the supply of cannabis. This kind of activity is not only illegal, it also puts other people in significant danger. The small terraced property we raided in Dallas Street this morning for example was in a shocking state, with over-loaded electrical sockets and the sheer number of plants presenting a very significant fire risk.

“For as long as people keep turning residential properties into drug factories we’ll keep raiding them and putting them out of action. It is simply not acceptable to blight communities and endanger other people in this way.”

The Mansfield Reacher team was joined this morning by colleagues from the local neighbourhood team and from the Gedling, Ashfield and Newark Reacher teams.Operation Reacher is a new proactive policing programme allowing teams of officers greater scope to crack down on areas of local concern.

Inspector Nick Butler, district commander for Mansfield, said: “I am aware that some people in our community take the view that ‘this is only a bit of weed’ and that perhaps we should focus our attention elsewhere, but I am afraid the realities of this kind of organised drug production are entirely more serious.

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“Grows on this scale tend not to be the work of hobbyists and low-level drug users, and are often the preserve of organised and ruthless criminal gangs from home and abroad who can also be linked to other serious offences like violence, people trafficking and modern slavery. It really is a squalid and exploitative industry and we will never tolerate this kind of activity in Mansfield.

“So if you believe properties near you are being used to supply drugs please call us on 101 and we will take action against them.”

Anyone with any information about recent events at any of the addresses mentioned above is asked to call 101 quoting incident number 81 17 December