Nosey police sniff out a hash factory

Nov 6 2008 by John Rowbotham, Hamilton Advertiser

TWO cops this week received a pat on the back after ‘sniffing out’ a cannabis factory in Hamilton.

The discovery happened early on Wednesday as two officers were dealing with an incident near the town centre.

The sergeant and constable detected what they thought was the smell of hashish and went to investigate.

They ‘followed their noses’ and located the dope factory.

Police later entered the premises and found a number of mature cannabis plants plus other paraphernalia usually found in hash factories.

It was the fifth Lanarkshire cannabis-growing operation smashed by police in less than four weeks.

Chief inspector Tom Aitken, of Hamilton Police, commended the two officers for making the latest discovery and warned members of the public to be vigilant as the cops’ crackdown on illegal hash factories continues.

The two male officers had been attending reports of a domestic disturbance in Burnside Lane shortly after 4am when they caught a whiff of what they thought was cannabis.

They began sniffing through the letter boxes of adjacent properties before identifying the factory in former business premises in Gateside Street.

CI Aitken added: “The air was being vented out of the building into the rear garden and the strong smell of cannabis came from that.

“A warrant to enter the premises was obtained and we found a number of cannabis plants in an advanced state of growth, and it looked as if other rooms were being prepared for cannabis cultivation.”

Police were yesterday carrying out a full search of the building and also trying to track down its owners.

Two Vietnamese last month appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court in connection with the discovery of 300 suspected cannabis plants, with a street value of £90,000, at a house in Galston Court, Hamilton.

In separate operations, between October 11 and October 13, police raided properties in Blantyre, Bellshill and Shotts and seized 1950 suspected cannabis plants with a street value of £679,00.