Daily Times

More than 450 people were charged and cannabis plants worth more than £115 million seized in a massive month-long drugs operation in June, British police said Friday. Operation Mille saw searches and arrests carried out across England and Wales “at a scale and pace not seen before”, police said. “Nearly 200,000 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of between £115-£130 million ($147 million-$166 million, 135 million-152 million euros) were seized,” police said.

Around 1,000 people were arrested and of those “more than 450 were later charged”. Cannabis production is a cash cow for organised crime, investigators say, fuelling gang violence as groups compete for territory. “Organised networks involved in cannabis production are also directly linked to an array of other serious criminality such as class A drug importation, modern slavery and wider violence and exploitation,” said Steve Jupp, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for serious organised crime.