UK: Police helicopter seeks out cannabis factories

[Joolz]

By Mark Cowan, Birmingham Mail

THIS is the "white hot" evidence gathered by police that is being used to smash secret cannabis factories in Birmingham.

Glowing brightly against the night sky, a semi-detached home in the east of the city stands apart from its neighbours.

But that isn't a snow-covered roof - the footage from the police helicopter's thermal imaging camera actually shows the massive amount of heat being given off by a large scale cannabis factory.

Commercial-sized cannabis growing factories have sprung up in unimposing residential streets in recent years. But the police helicopter is now being regularly used to pinpoint heat being given off by the super-strong lights needed to cultivate the plants.

It has already been used in many successful operations including in Stechford, where factories have been located and people convicted and jailed.

Airborne police said the images highlighted how their on-board technology was helping to target those responsible for peddling drugs on the streets.

Sgt Paul Farley, Unit Executive Officer for the Air Operations Unit, said: "This was one of the biggest heat sources we have seen. It looked like snow on the roof.

"You have to bear in mind the production of the drug requires a tremendous amount of heat and light, which is what we look for. You can see from neighbouring houses a little bit of heat being emitted but there was a significant heat source from this property, it was markedly different. You couldn't miss it really."

He added: "This sort of image is used by officers on the ground to get the authority of the courts in order to execute search warrants."

Police have seen an explosion in the number of cannabis factories set up in houses in the West Midlands.

Drugs barons get people to pose as respectable families in order to rent out properties but then convert rooms into giant greenhouses with cannabis plants growing in virtually every room.

To avoid the massive electricity bills needed to pay for the heating, they often bypass the meter. It is estimated the factories regularly turn over tens of thousands of pounds worth of the drug which are then sold on the streets.

Sgt Farley said the helicopter is called in by officers investigating the existence of drugs factories in a bid to confirm their suspicions.

The helicopter makes sweeps of the roof-tops in the hunt for the tell-tale heat sources. The images are then used secure search warrants.

Sgt Farley said that no matter what the gangs did to cover their illegal tracks the drug factories still stood out a mile.

He said: "I am sure they do their very best to try to suppress the heat but heat has to escape from the building somewhere. It can't just disappear and if it is diverted somewhere else we'll spot it."

The helicopter has been used in several high-profile operations across the city recently.

Earlier this year, police seized £250,000 from a property in Quinton and found several hundred cannabis plants with a street value of nearly £250,000.

The house looked so much like an ordinary semi that neighbours even sent Christmas cards to the new tenants unaware they had turned it into a drugs factory.

Last March police recovered £300,000 worth of cannabis from a Victorian property in Station Road, Stechford. More than 1,000 plants were being grown in 14 rooms. Two Vietnamese men were later jailed for three years for cannabis production.

A few weeks later police in Stechford smashed more cannabis factories after raiding a number of other addresses in the area.

And in July police called to deal with a minor street row found a string of houses across Birmingham and Warwickshire turned into cannabis factories. At one house they found 1,200 plants.

http://icstafford.icnetwork.co.uk

[Guest Not A Number]

Sgt Farley said that no matter what the gangs did to cover their illegal tracks the drug factories still stood out a mile.

He said: "I am sure they do their very best to try to suppress the heat but heat has to escape from the building somewhere. It can't just disappear and if it is diverted somewhere else we'll spot it."

Sgt Farley is a fuckwit. Then again so are the idiots running that grow op There are lots of ways of making the heat "disappear". For instance were I to be running that many lamps in the loft I would be filtering (and drying) the air then pumping it into the wall cavity. In short I'd use the heat in the loft to heat the rest of the house.

Venting beside the flue of a combi boiler works well too

[Trychs]

Sgt Farley said that no matter what the gangs did to cover their illegal tracks the drug factories still stood out a mile.

He said: "I am sure they do their very best to try to suppress the heat but heat has to escape from the building somewhere. It can't just disappear and if it is diverted somewhere else we'll spot it."

Sgt Farley is a fuckwit. Then again so are the idiots running that grow op There are lots of ways of making the heat "disappear". For instance were I to be running that many lamps in the loft I would be filtering (and drying) the air then pumping it into the wall cavity. In short I'd use the heat in the loft to heat the rest of the house.

Venting beside the flue of a combi boiler works well too

Either that or buy a rocket launcher.

Edited February 6, 2007 by Trychs

[Kmus2K]

Just stick a decent air conditioner in the artic.. just cool down the roof space and voila no-one knows..

[danbungladors]

I AGREE GET DA TEMPITURE DOWN WITH AIRCON FANS AN VENTING AIR COOLED LIGHTS NAE BOTHER BIG MAN ULE NO GET ME PEACE DAN BUNGLADORS

[Guest Not A Number]

Using aircon doesn't make the problem go away as you still have to vent the aircon. It just costs you more in electric.

[elduderino]

hot air being vented from a grow is another thing that I am "told" they look for, I dont work for them so can't proove that really, I'm sure I read it in softsecrets or something.

I'm lucky in that where I am now (not UK) the police have to get a judge signed warrant for such evidence seeking, which gives me a fighting chance to be sensible and not get busted.

I was really curious though as to the material for lining ceilings and walls called "anti-detection film" ,, anyone vouch for this stuff????

I know I have seen the "police stop!" videos and they showed a staged scene of a guy running being chased by a helicopter,,,long story short,,,he had some anti-detection film and disapeared from the heat camera (infra-red?) completely! but as a chase they had already circled him and caught him,,, this may not work for running accross a field,, but for houses,, maybe ? I think its basically the same stuff that marathon runners get cloaked in at the end of their run,, or the stuff you give to people when they are being rescued and may be suffering from exposure etc..

also if you put false walls round your grow (like batons and plasterboard or similair) and leave a good bit of space between the false walls and the actual walls/tiles, you reduce your heat image dramatically,, possibly enough to foil the feckers :wink: you also have the option to make your false wall two layers and sandwich some insulation in there to boot.

[Operation Hard Hat]

By Mark Cowan, Birmingham Mail

Airborne police said the images highlighted how their on-board technology was helping to target those responsible for peddling drugs on the streets.

Those responsible for peddling drugs on the streets are the same people that are responsible for Cannabis Prohibition, ie the government and the UN single convention on Narcotics.

The distortion of truth is becomming more and more insidious as the media is manipulated by the increasingly desperate "Prohibition Industry", who feel that the phenomenal budgets paid for by the tax-payer are not enough for them.

One day they (Prohibitonists) will fall, as more people become aware of this corruption and needless defiance of efficient regulation. There were only a couple of hundred Heroin Addicts in the UK, before the Government signed in the Misuse of Drugs Act.

OK speech over, back to growing Cannabis for personal use.

[Guest Not A Number]

ADF does what it claims - it blocks direct infra-red emissions. However this is absolutely pointless for the average grower. Reason? You block the direct IR which increases heat in the grow area causing associated problems. Then you still have to get rid of the hot air so really you'd have been better keeping the grow area cooler in the first place :wink:

You can't eliminate heat but you can dissipate it (spread it about).

Anyway the cameras aren't going to be the showstopper. Smart metering will be.

Edited February 6, 2007 by Not A Number

[asbo420]

this is doing my head in now, there were loads of copper choppers in brum last week because of all the so called terror raids.

i noticed while at the park down the road from my house that one of the copters was hovering still above my house. i was quite worried but then it left. five minuites later it was back, straight to my house and stopped again directly above my roof, maybe 100 meters above it.

i was worried at the time but after reading this article im even more worried.

i have 5 600w light running at the moment as i only grow 2 crops a year.

my grow is in an attic room and the heat is ducted straight into the loft. it was a pretty cold day and the temp in the growroom was only about 20 degrees so it may have been a little cooler than that in the loft.

this was in daylight though as i dont run my lights at night.

do they use the infra red cameras in daylight or are they for night only?

i feel like pulling the plants out and there only 2 weeks into flower.

am i really being paranoid, do they not send the copter out till after a tip off or do they now have enough evidence for a warrant with just the heat signature?

[elduderino]

ADF does what it claims - it blocks direct infra-red emissions. However this is absolutely pointless for the average grower. Reason? You block the direct IR which increases heat in the grow area causing associated problems. Then you still have to get rid of the hot air so really you'd have been better keeping the grow area cooler in the first place :wink:

You can't eliminate heat but you can dissipate it (spread it about).

Anyway the cameras aren't going to be the showstopper. Smart metering will be.

good to get a view on "adf" , i am kinda convinced by its claims.

as you say however,, smart metering !

bloody hell!

[asbo420]

maybe extracting into the chimney breast is the way forward, if its not to late for me already.

theres no way a grow can get as warm as an open coal fire.

[adddw]

i seen a few of them hoverings and its not a pretty sight....basement anyone? :wink:

[Herbsman]

Smart metering will be.

Well they know where they can stick their smartmeter!

[StonedBrittania]

i seen a few of them hoverings and its not a pretty sight....basement anyone?

nah i'll be sticking my my loft

i might be worried if I have 10,000 watts up there