Police in an English county have seized over 100 cannabis plants from an illegal growing operation taking place in a residential area. This marijuana farm, which was first sniffed out by the police’s drone team, is said to be “one of the many” that have been disrupted this year courtesy of weed-hunting drones.
According to the UK’s Lincolnshire Police, when its team entered the residential property on December 21, it discovered multiple rooms with various cannabis plants at different stages of growth. While no one has been arrested at this stage, and the investigation is ongoing, police say that the success of the search warrant presents yet another example of why drones should be hailed as key in modern-day crime fighting.
“Our drone team carried out initial exploration. We scoped the area at night and used thermal imaging to obtain footage that gave reasonable suspicion that the cultivation of cannabis was taking place,” the police say.
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For those not familiar with indoor marijuana growing operations, the reason why drones are able to find cannabis farms is that an enormous amount of heat and light is needed to grow the weed. As the temperatures at night begin to drop, a drone fitted with a thermal imaging sensor can pick up on properties emitting unusual amounts of heat quite easily.
In a similar operation that took place on the morning of December 2, Lincolnshire Police used drone footage to take out a search warrant for a residential property and discovered around 65 cannabis plants being grown in two rooms. There was evidence that other rooms had also been used recently to house plants.
“The grow was illegal and also posed a significant fire risk in a row of terraced houses. We used a variety of tactics, including our drone team, to build up a picture that led to this morning’s action,” Inspector Colin Clarkson said.
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