Wiltshire | Archive | 2007 | August | 27
From the Swindon Advertiser, first published Monday 27th Aug 2007.
ARMED police officers have raided a suspected cannabis factory in Upper Stratton.
A 30-year-old man was arrested and a quantity of cannabis seized when officers entered the house in Greenlands Road around 8am yesterday.
Residents out to buy their Sunday newspapers returned from the shops to find the road off Headlands Grove sealed at both ends.
Four police vans and a team of forensic officers went to the semi-detached two-storey house, which neighbours believe has been rented out in recent months.
A spokeswoman for Swindon police later confirmed that the property was raided after officers received intelligence that the house was being used to cultivate cannabis.
She said: "A 30-year-old male has been arrested on suspicion of producing cannabis and is currently being held at Swindon's Gablecross police station.
"A quantity of cannabis and equipment was seized from the address."
The morning raid came as little surprise to the Daville family, who have lived opposite for 14 years.
They have seen people leaving the house late at night and very early in the morning.
Dave Daville, 80, said: "I was coming back from the shop with my paper and the road had been sealed off.
"I saw armed police and they had a ram to open the door, but they went round the back instead.
"I haven't seen any police activity there before, but the people who live there have kept strange hours."
Dave's granddaughter Kelly, 16, said: "They are always going in and out in the middle of the night, but never during the day.
"There used to be a family there but they moved out, and since then it was been rented."
The raid is the third of its kind in Swindon in just 10 days.
On Tuesday we reported that officers had raided a property in Beckhampton Street where they found paraphernalia for the production of cannabis.
And on Wednesday, August 17 officers found cannabis plants with a value of up to £30,000 in a house in Vicarage Road, Rodbourne Cheney.
It is alleged police discovered more than 180 plants that filled up all three of the rooms on the first floor.
Officers believe that the plants had been cultivated in the privately rented two-storey property with the help of lighting and watering systems.
The raid in Vicarage Road was the first major cannabis raid in Swindon since December, when a cannabis factory containing £20,000 of the drug was busted.
On that occasion police found up to 300 plants filling every room apart from one in a three-bedroom house in Stratton Road.
After the Vicarage Road raid, Van Thieu Nguyen, 28, of no fixed address, was charged with the production of cannabis when he appeared in court earlier this month. He entered no plea.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008