BARKINGSIDE: Hundreds of cannabis plants found in police raid

The pungent smell of skunk spilled into the street when the Barkingside Safer Neighbourhoods team burst into the property in Woodford Avenue, Gants Hill, after neighbours alerted them to suspicious activity at the house, which has been rented since September.

A thermal imager showed that the heat coming from the property was around 10 degrees higher than neighbouring properties, and 49 heat lamps with 600 watt bulbs were found hanging from the ceilings of five main rooms in a sophisticated electrical system bypassing the mains.

Each lamp was connected to a box and timer controlling the lights, and aluminum flumes carried hot air out to the loft in the system which would have cost around £10,000 to set up.

PC Mark Hill said: "These factories are a major fire risk, especially if it is a semi-detached or terraced house because we have got to think about the people living on either side. We have had a few burn down in Redbridge and one was right across the road, on the other side of Woodford Avenue."

Electricians made sure the property was safe before police investigated the property properly.

Cannabis plants three feet high filled the front bedroom on the first floor, while in the back bedroom harvested skunk flowers were found hanging from the ceiling to dry.

Downstairs, plants had already been harvested from the two main rooms which stood empty except for piles of used plant pots, ready for the new plants growing in incubators in the hall.

Police sergeant Greg Euston, who led Operation Knockback, said: "It was necessary to break in there not just because of the fire risk, but because they had lots of other implications for the area such as drug dealing and crime, and we do not want that on the streets."

Police Community Support Officers from the Barkingside SNT spoke to neighbours during the raid and handed out information about the operation to concerned passers-by.