POLICE have shut down another cannabis factory in Ipswich as part of an on going operation to put drug traders out of business.

Tom Potter

POLICE have shut down another cannabis factory in Ipswich as part of an on going operation to put drug traders out of business.

Drug squad detectives arrived at a house in Nacton Road in the early hours of yesterday morning where a cannabis factory worth thousands of pounds had been operating.

Police swooped on the four-bed rented property after receiving a tip off from a member of the public at about 2am.

Nobody was in the house but plant pots and hydroponic growing equipment were found in four rooms while baby cannabis plants had been left behind in a downstairs room.

Eye-witness Alan Chenery, of Nacton Road, said he noticed forensics teams at the property at around 7am yesterday.

The 29-year-old said: “I don't think this type of crime should be tolerated and I would like to see more people get caught.

“I hope it makes people think twice about doing drugs.”

Evidence was also found that whoever was using the house for cultivating the drug was abstracting electricity illegally in order to power the operation.

Officers spent the morning preserving the scene and conducting searches and an electricity company arrived soon afterwards to make the house safe.

Detective sergeant Dave Green led the operation at the scene.

He said: “We got here when there were some smaller plants still in the house and evidence of more plants, so it's a case of us carrying out an evidence trawl with help from scientific services.

“It's a typical Vietnamese set up with hundreds of plants, albeit on this occasion having already been cropped. Had we been here 48 hours earlier, we'd have found a fairly hefty yield.

“The house has been left in a mess so now it's a matter of us clearing up for the homeowner.”

Anyone with information about the identity of those living in the house or who saw anything suspicious in Nacton Road should call Ipswich police station on 01473 613500.

FASTFACTS: Recent drugs busts:-

DRUGS cops have been kept busy in recent months dealing with a number of similar cannabis factories across the Ipswich area.

Yesterday's bust in Nacton Road is just the latest in a series of raids.

- Officers were called to reports of a suspected break-in at a house in Atherton Road in Ipswich on September 9, but instead found evidence of a cannabis factory.

- Another source in the drugs supply chain was nipped in the bud in August when police seized 300 plants from a house in Ipswich's Robeck Road.

- A similar factory was found in Whitton Church Lane in Ipswich the previous week.

- Also at around that time, 200 plants were discovered at a property in Martlesham.