Cannabis worth about £350,000 spread over three stories of a building has been seized following a police raid on a home in Hartlepool.
Officers from Hartlepool’s Neighbourhood Police Team discovered the cannabis farm at a property in Stanhope Avenue on Tuesday, September 27.
The farm included hydroponics and other growing equipment, and over 350 plants with a value of around £350,000 were recovered.
Upon entry to the address, two males fled from the rear of the property. Officers pursued them on foot, and a 39-year-old man was arrested and later charged with production of cannabis.
Read more: What we know after footpath was cordoned off by police for several hours
Two vehicles were seized by officers on suspicion of being used in crime.
The other male is still outstanding and anyone who knows of his whereabouts is asked to contact 101.
Sergeant Snow said: “It is important that we locate and dismantle cannabis farms such as this, not only to get drugs off the street but more often than not the farms are set up with extremely dangerous electrical supplies.
“The set up at this particular address required major intervention from Northern Powergrid to make the address safe and involved engineers digging up the street, causing severe disruption to the entire neighbourhood who were intermittently without power through the night.
“This electrical setup was also potentially lethal to members of the public simply walking down the street, with cables laid under paving stones on the footpath which may have been live.”
If you have information with regards to drugs activity in your area call Cleveland Police on 101 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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