Cannabis: What's the Harm? (2010) s01e02 Episode Script
Episode 2
1 Cannabis, dope, weed, chronic Whatever you call it, it's the most widely used illegal drug in Britain with more than two million people using it last year.
But how much harm does cannabis actually cause? Like most young people in the UK I have smoked cannabis in the past.
Like most young people in the UK I didn't think it was doing any harm to myself or anybody else.
In the last programme, I discovered just how common the use of cannabis is, and met smokers growing it for themselves.
It is going on all over the country and you wouldn't know it is happening.
Now I want to find who's really behind the enormous boom in large scale weed production This is organized crime.
Who's buying it? And what's the cost some people are paying in addiction? Kids don't do drugs until they are teenagers.
They do, it is a fact.
I'll be embedded with the authorities trying to stop the drug being smuggled into Britain, and I'll follow the police in trying to uncover the gangs behind the cannabis business.
I'll hear from unwitting victims who've been trafficked into this country to help grow it We were allowed to leave the house? No.
The its sounds like slave labour.
And how some cannabis turf wars have even ended in murder.
Cannabis is a controversial drug and I want to go beyond the headlines To find out what's the harm in cannabis? Cannabis is a drug that has been around for 4,000 years.
But it wasn't made illegal in the UK until 1928.
Many famous people have confessed to smoking it.
Even the President of America.
In the last few years it's been reclassified from a Class C to Class B, meaning if you're caught with it you can receive up to a 5-year prison sentence, and if you're found supplying it you face up to 14 years inside.
Up until 2007 the police were busting 800 cannabis factories a year but this rocketed to nearly 7000 in 2009.
So, I want discover for myself who's buying and who's supplying the most popular drug in Britain.
The start of my search is taking me to the heart of England.
Just arriving at a pub in the West Midlands to meet Michael on Rob.
They are very enthusiastic about it.
They also play in a band.
This is Michael and Rob, one half of a band called 'Jimmy the fool.
' They're spending their day off from work practicing in their local pub.
I want to find out from the boys what it is they love about cannabis and more importantly do they know where they get it from? Welcome to the Black Country.
What an introduction.
You must be? Michael.
I am Rob.
Nice to meet you.
Thanks for letting me come to speak to you.
Might take it to you obit cannabis enthusiasts? Yes we are.
Smoked it for about 10 years.
Smoke give to enjoy music, play music and write music and just to chill out.
It sounds like a positive thing for you? Finishing work and relaxing and having a spliffs, forgetting the whole day.
I don't know, place some guitar.
Shall we go and have a spliffs? you want to pop out.
I will walk with you.
I know a lovely little spot near by.
Has smoking indoors is banned, they like to take their recreational breaks in the nearby park.
In your early 30s, you have to sneak out to have a split in the cold.
He will have the police saying, excuse me sir.
No venue have to explain what you're doing and they know what you're doing.
It is a waste of their time and mine, so it is best to stay out of the way.
How much do you smoke, get through a week? It depends on what you're doing, what your finances are like.
What the availability is like, when you don't grow it yourself.
What are you smoking? Is it skunk? It is whatever it is.
You don't know what strain it is? It's regular, I don't need to know the breed.
We have a dependable man who helps us out.
We trust the guy we buy it off.
You can grow it in bulk or grow quality.
We go for the quality.
If you want the bulk head to the town centres and find it anywhere.
But do you want to? No thank you.
Does the guy you get it off, Rovers don't forget it supplied to him? He gets it from a friend.
That sort of goes away from knowing way you get it from.
I know his friend.
I wanted to clarify, sometimes you're putting money in the pockets of someone who is very dodgy.
Michael and Rob believe they're not harming anyone because they know who they get it from.
But what happens if users don't know the source? Many people who smoke cannabis don't know where their weed comes from.
And that could be a problem.
To find out how cannabis is supplied I need to speak to a dealer who can tell me about how the business side of cannabis works from street level up to the very top? I'm in South London to meet someone who used to sell cannabis.
I am here to meet some man called Clyde.
He is a former cannabis dealer.
He should be around here somewhere.
Nice to meet you.
Are you well? Thanks for meeting me.
You are welcome.
Clyde began smoking when he was 13 and moved into dealing when he was still at school.
How old were you when you first started? 15, I became a small-time dealer.
What is the difference before you were 15 and then what you class as becoming a small-time dealer, what is the difference? Before it was just about me, not about anybody else.
If I pick something up for me, I might go out with the boys and have a smoke.
When I started dealing, people would ring my phone and ask me for stuff.
Then it was supply and demand, so I was dealing.
I did not realise when the switch actually happened.
It was only when I was at home sleeping and somebody rang my phone and I had to get up and meet them.
I realised it was a job, I'm going out in the middle of the night to meet you on a shady corner and serve you.
But when I realised I became a drug dealer.
What I want to know is who's who in the supply chain? Who was up but you, below you? At the top you have your Sir Alex Ferguson, the boss.
A lot of the time it is grown abroad and they ship it over here.
The new have farmers in England growing weed.
You have people growing it in houses.
They will sell to the manager, as it were.
He will buy it in kilos.
He will take the kilos and sell to some of the lower down the chain.
Then you have your small-time dealers like how I was when I was 15.
You buy half an ounce, by an ounce and make ï¿¡15, ï¿¡20.
How much were you are earning? The most I have ever earned from selling weed would be a couple of hundred in a week.
When dealing started, it was the buzz of being big guy of having something what people wanted.
It was never about money, gang culture for me.
People would come up to meet and ask if I had anything.
I said yes, I was satisfying somebody's need.
By doing what I was doing, in a way I was worth something.
To this group of people, I was the man to them.
That is why I started dealing and that is what happens with a lot of use.
Is that a common way for people your age for people to get a bit of money and stuff? It was.
In my area, I would say there were three reasons.
One was money, some people did it for like I say, the fame, as it were.
Some people did it because that's all they knew.
A lot of us, it is sad to say we did not know any better.
That is what around you, it is a culture.
It is not just a cup black culture, it is just a culture.
Two years ago, Clyde stopped smoking and dealing after becoming a born-again Christian He is now working as a drugs counsellor with school children.
How has your life changed? Everything.
Everything is different.
I work in the community, the same community I was helping to destroy, is the same community I am trying to repair.
We go into youth clubs, we go into schools, churches we educate on the dangers of drugs, drug prevention.
It is a total turnaround.
The cash he earned, was one of the reasons why people like Clyde going to dealing.
But the big money is might by those working high up the chain Today I'm meeting someone who grew the plant deliberately.
I am on my way to meet a cannabis farmer.
which is someone who grows cannabis We have to meet in a neutral location.
He is concerned about security and safety.
I think this is the place.
He will only meet me on condition I don't say where he is from an don't show his face.
They just call him Rob.
Cannabis farmers spread out into the suburbs and then the countryside as the police crackdown in the cities.
Now many operate in remote places like this where they can grow on notice.
I just wait now.
Hello mate.
I and James.
You were a cannabis farmer? What does that mean? Exactly as it sounds, I grew cannabis, put plants in pots.
I would grow them, water them and feed them, make sure they will warm enough and had the right amount of light.
Then I would pass them on to the wholesalers.
How long way you are cannabis farmer? Over a decade.
Tell me about the money, how much would you be learned from this? might be 4,000 a year.
It is a decent wage.
If you are growing drugs are essentially, you would be on millions? There are some people will laugh.
The majority of people in this business I know are not loaded.
A lot of them are very comfortable but they are not loaded.
Rob would earn his money by setting up and running at fully kitted out cannabis farm in a place like this.
Is this the sort of place you would use? It would need a new roof on it and walls.
But you could use some were like this.
How would you go about using this space? Making sure it was well insulated for a start.
How will probably put up to 500 plants in here with a bit of space between them.
You can keep an eye on them.
What I wanted to find out was did he work alone when he set up a factory, or was he working for with anyone else? I was an individual operator.
How many people like you did you know? A rough guess, how many people in England might be doing it? Tens of thousands, if not more.
It is a very, very common thing although it is getting tougher because police are investigating and cracking down.
the only people producing this and making money out of it, it is when you put the frighteners on people by busting people left right and centre.
Most people naturally will lose their nerve essentially and packets in.
The only people doing it are the people who don't give a monkey's.
Are the only thing that makes you do it at the moment is putting more power and money into Rob believes that organized gangs are behind the bulk of UK cannabis production, which is why busting factories is now a bigger priority for the police.
I've been following Avon and Somerset police for four weeks, on Operation Viscount, which is targeting cannabis factories not just in the cities but in rural areas too.
In Bridgwater, Somerset, the Police have received intelligence about a suspected large cannabis factory in the heart of the countryside.
It is a section 23 misuse of drugs Act warrant.
We have heard they are cultivated cannabis in the farm buildings there.
If you flip over, you will find an aerial view.
The police have been tipped off there might be anything from 300 to 1,000 plants being grown on the farm.
There are no signs of any plants being grown.
If cannabis was being cultivated, it would be hard to hide a professional set-up.
would expect to Smollett.
It is farming country! Its miles of shite! It's a fruitless 30-minute's search.
Then one policeman detects a faint smell from some haystacks.
And this time it's not coming from a cow.
There is a secret building behind the haystack, which may be what they are looking for.
The entrance to this secret building is on the opposite side of the barn, so the officers dash around.
The concealed building within this barn is beyond this Let's see what we are dealing with.
The door is purpose built out of cast-iron, and is proving difficult to open.
It is one helluva door.
You wonder what it is concealing.
40 minutes of hard graft finally pays off.
Whoever has built this has gone to great lengths in setting up Oh, yes.
It is looking good.
It looks like we have four capsules, these two and the two next door.
These are quite mature.
The police find over 400 plants worth an estimated ï¿¡400,000.
A man and a woman were later arrested for cannabis production.
The number of factories uncovered by the police has soared by 850% in the last four years.
No part of the country's immune from this boom.
Even rural areas like this where growers think they can go unnoticed.
The cannabis grown in this rural factory can end up on any street in Britain.
It might even stay local.
Half an hour down the road from Bridgwater is Glastonbury, I'm here to meet a teenager who is in trouble with the law for his cannabis habit It's 8am on a Tuesday morning, and I'm at the home of 14 year-old Nathan Are you Kerry? I and James.
Kerry's son Nathan is a heavy smoker of cannabis.
You have a visitor.
Morning, Nathan.
Sorry to do this to you, mate.
I you're not going to be up for school this morning? is on bail but half 11.
What is the answering bail for? Probably burglary or something.
Nathan's been arrested for burglary, and he attends a school for students with behavioural difficulties.
Is this the normal routine, trying to drag him out of bed? Yes, he wakes up with a dope handover.
He finds it really difficult.
Does he smoke in the mornings? He does, if he has got some.
He will try to have a snack before he goes to school.
He started when he was 10.
And that is when the behaviour problems started, as well? 10 years old, that his primary-school.
People think kids don't do drugs until they are teenagers, well, they do.
And it's a fact.
Nathan's dad died of when he was six, and Kerry's subsequent two relationships were violent ones which Nathan witnessed.
Obviously that had an effect.
He ended up playing up at school, and the smoking was a way to forget what he had been through.
It is just soul-destroying to think he is wasting his life away.
He is damaging his body.
And I don't know what to do.
If I knew, I would be doing it.
His cannabis use is leading him to repeatedly break the law.
Nathan? Are you coming down? Give us a rough time? Couple of minutes? He is.
Nice to finally meet you, Sleeping Beauty.
I'm James.
Have you got any with you this morning? I haven't.
Do you smoke every day? A little bit, yes.
How much do you smoke a day? How much I can get, really.
How do you get the money? don't know.
Sometimes I do work round the house, or just random things.
I'm going to ask you something quite direct.
You're going to post bail today.
You're posting bail for burglary, right? Was that to get money for it? it was.
If there is that something you have done quite often? I have done it before.
So you go and burgle people's has his? Yes.
I don't do it all the time.
Hardly ever.
Nathan's committing burglary to get money to fund what he feels is becoming more than just a habit.
Do you feel the addicted? I don't know.
I think I am addicted to it, yes.
Do you want to stop smoking it? Are you doing anything to help you stop? I do.
I am meeting these people call on the level, they say they will help.
On the Level is Nathan's local drug advice centre.
I hope he gets the help he needs.
I just met young Nathan.
It is a bit shocking, smoking from such a young age.
At that age, I was running round the playground.
He has been dealing with a lot of stuff in his life.
It feels like he is missing out on something, and he is replacing it using cannabis, which is shocking to me.
It is easy to be judgmental, and I am trying not to be.
It seems he has a lot of problems to deal with.
I didn't think it was possible to be hooked on weed in the way Nathan is, so I'm curious to learn more about dependency from a project here in Ipswich.
It's called the Iceni Project, and they run one of the very few cannabis dependency programmes available in Britain.
Sorry to interrupt.
Hello, everyone.
Is it OK to coming? Absolutely! I and James, nice to meet you all.
Hello, everyone.
Where shall I sit? Come and sit near me.
I'll look after you.
Have you got a cannabis problem? No, I haven't.
Have you any understanding of it? I have known people in my life that have had drug addictions.
I was unaware that cannabis can be addictive.
Would you guys say it is addictive? Yes.
Mentally addictive.
I would say it can be physically addictive.
I used to wake up and get sheiks, hot and sweaty, feel faint.
I did feel I was addicted to it, I had to have it every day, and my anxiety would come out if I didn't.
So I felt like I was addicted.
Jo started smoking at 15, and her habit grew so strong that when she had children, she struggled to look after them.
my kids taken off me for alcohol and cannabis, and when I lost them, I got really bad.
But now I have given up.
How long have you not smoked for? 15 weeks and one day.
Not that she is counting! How many kids have you got? I have got two.
And you just went cold turkey? And you couldn't have done it without this place? They have given me a lot of health -- help and support.
They have stopped me from relapsing about a million times.
How much were you smoking? Up to ï¿¡50 a day.
How much is that? Nearly half an ounce.
Every day? Scientists haven't always agreed whether cannabis is addictive.
A Government report two years ago however confirmed what I'd just heard, that heavy cannabis users do experience psychological craving for the drug and physical withdrawal symptoms if they stop.
I wanted to find out from Susie, the programme's counsellor if she thinks cannabis dependency is a big problem than I'd thought.
I know quite a lot of people use cannabis occasionally, but in terms of addiction, it doesn't seem like that bit of a problem to me, in terms of numbers.
Not everyone is a problem, but far lot of people, it is.
A woman phoned today, she hasn't left her house in 20 years, because she is so paranoid.
What is that? How often you get people like that? Lots of times.
Weekly, daily? Weekly.
People call all the time now that they know this course is happening.
We could fill this place.
We really could.
I now have a better understanding of the harm cannabis can cause individuals.
Some people need help with addiction.
The Iceni project has an 85 % success rate on helping users give up cannabis, but it's one of only a few in the country.
That's because cannabis addiction isn't given the same funding as Class A drugs or alcohol.
I'm trying to find out how cannabis is supplied to people like Jo and Nathan.
So far I've met a dealer and a farmer, but I want to speak to someone linked with those earning the seven figure sums at the very top of the weed business.
I am here on the White Cliffs of Dover to meet Jason Wilson.
His father was a cannabis smuggler for years.
It wasn't until the law finally caught up with him Jason's dad is Anthony Spencer who was the head of an organized crime group and is currently serving time in a UK prison for cannabis smuggling.
Jason has since written a series of cartoon novels about his Dad's experiences.
I'm curious to find out where cannabis comes from and how it's smuggled in to the country without it being detected by the UK Border Agency Who police the borders.
If you are going to smuggle a large quantity of cannabis in, would it be on a vessel like that? That looks like a ferry that you might take to France.
Yes, it is just a regular ferry.
Lorries, coaches, booze cruises.
It might be on that ferry.
There could be a lorry with a consignment on board.
A lorry driver just doing his normal job, it just happens this time of his consignment will pay very well! There are many trade routes from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Carribean smuggling cannabis into the UK, but I wanted to know which one Jason's Dad used.
The source is the mountains of Morocco and the farmers.
You are dealing with farmers, or with the so-called Moroccan Mafia.
They have connections with a Brit, in my father's case, it was him.
Once you have got your sauce, you bring it over by boat.
You have a little team down in the south of Spain, they packet for transport.
They would drive the lorry all the way up to Calais for you, and then it should be straightforward through to Dover at the other end, and then goes to another safe house where it is broken up and distributed.
Within days, the money starts coming in.
The money goes back to Morocco, and the whole chain begins again.
As simple as that.
It is a real involved organisation.
This is real organised crime.
If it was disorganised, it wouldn't last long.
It is very organised, and run like most businesses are, but just without the paperwork! So was your dad the guy at the top? He was the top guy who controlled it from Spain into England.
He was convicted in Spain.
He is out next year, and I think he is planning on being retired know.
If you don't mind me asking, how much did he earn? In Morocco, say you are buying it and selling it on wholesale, you make a lot of money.
ï¿¡100 a key, and you sell it for ï¿¡1,000 a key? You have things to pay out on the way, and you can pay people well, but while that is going well, you can do brilliantly.
But at some point, something will go wrong.
It is like gambling.
At some point, things just go wrong.
Do you think the UK Border Agency are doing a good job in deterring smugglers? There is only so much they can do.
They can't go through everything.
You can't scan lorries the way they would like to do think they can.
It is just a needle in a haystack.
That is what they are looking for The UK Border Agency face a massive challenge policing Britain's 600 ports and stopping cannabis being smuggled in.
Smugglers use all kinds of clever ways to sneak cannabis into the UK without being detected.
Over 23 million passengers and six million vehicles pass through UK ports each year.
Officers use a combination of intelligence leads and experience when deciding which vehicles to select for inspection.
We are task would looking for various things, that might be people hiding in lorries, it and might be drugs, firearms excise goods.
The officers making the selections are making it for a specific reason.
If there is a space, it does not matter how big a house more, it can be filled with anything.
Cannabis, any other drug or excise goods.
This French lorry is full of egg crates and has been picked to be searched.
Officer Bev Wetherill has a routine set of questions that the driver needs to answer.
Did you see this loaded? Did you see this put on the lorry? Yes.
The no drugs, no guns, no pistols? No gas, no knives, flick, stab? Obviously we don't all speak different languages so we try to speak to them in their own language, but it is not always very easy.
My French is very limited to what I learnt at school.
They do understand some of the things.
With limited access to search effectively inside the lorry the officers decide to x-ray its contents.
The driver now has a nervous wait to see if he's in the clear.
He go-ahead image.
Received.
Image operator said it is clear or so he is OK to go.
We need to give him the necessary paperwork.
Last year the UKBA seized 24.
5 tonnes of cannabis.
Which was 80 % of the total amount captured.
But preventing the drug passing through the ports is only one half of the job.
The other half is to do the same thing at the UK's 63 airports.
So I'm here at Gatwick to see exactly what the officers see exactly what they.
Where do you find most of the cannabis comes from? It comes from Jamaica.
Why is it the Caribbean specifically? It grows there.
We obviously get personal use amounts coming in from Europe and the rest of the world, but for our purposes we are looking for suitcases full of cannabis.
We get them mainly from Jamaica.
People actually transported in suitcases? More or less.
The drug is hidden in a variety of ways.
There has been a spate of cannabis being hidden in pineapples.
They put a block of cannabis inside an bluetits back up.
In pineapples? Anything at all.
It is pretty bold isn't it? You keep someone employed over there, it keeps us busy here.
There are an estimated ten million suitcases arriving at Gatwick each year So officers have to be selective what they choose to inspect.
The UKBA officers use a combination of sniffer dogs, x-ray machines, tip-offs and intelligence to detect cannabis in luggage Does it come of dark? .
.
blue or something.
It is a different colour, but I like to look at the black and white, I find it easier.
That one looks strange? There is a lot of bottles in there.
White rum.
Any bags looking suspicious are checked using legal powers.
We didn't find any cannabis on this particular flight from Jamaica.
We found coffee, condoms, seaweed, we did not find any cannabis.
But, they are finding cannabis on a weekly basis here at Gatwick.
The UKBA officers may have been empty handed at Gatwick, but another team at Heathrow have got several hands full Having just uncovered 160 kg of cannabis in three cardboard boxes Which has been sent from South Africa via an air freight cargo company.
The drugs are removed and will be put away in secure storage.
But whoever arrives to pick up the repacked boxes will be unaware of this.
An investigation team have been on stakeout for 36 hours watching the depot, waiting for the drugs to be collected.
The team have received a call telling them that a man has arrived at the air freight depot to collect the boxes, so the officers need to catch him before he gets away A man is arrested However at this stage in the investigation, It is not clear if he is responsible for importing drugs or just a paid career.
During questioning, the suspect says he's been paid cash to collect the boxes on behave the man he met a couple of weeks ago.
The suspect confesses that he has some heroin on him Thanks for telling us for being honest about what you've got The police have get in a police van here I'm sure they'll put their ears on for you get over and done as quickly as possible And then we'll be taken off to the nearest police station The man was bailed pending further investigation.
Smugglers tend not to work just office hours and neither do the staff at the UK Borders Agency.
I had just put a clean shirt on and going out for some dinner, so I thought.
But I got a call from the UK Border Agency to go to Felixstowe because they have some sort of cannabis job on, they have found some in a trailer.
I don't know much more than that.
I am pretty excited.
It is all a bit covert and it is a privilege being here.
Not many people get to do this.
I've been invited to a secret inspection area and officer Andy Rose is waiting to meet me.
How are you doing? In the middle of it? What has happened, last night some colleagues were examining some freight that arrive on a ferry from Holland.
You can see it over there, those oil drums, they are chemical drums.
We opened one of them last night and found what we believe to be cannabis.
So we are going to have a look in all of the drums today, get all of the packages out, see what we have got.
It was full of sand.
And those of the packages? Basically they are hidden amongst the sand.
How much would be in each of the drums? We are not sure exactly, probably 100 packages in each and each package probably has a street value of ï¿¡3,000.
So you're talking thousands of pounds worth of cannabis.
This one looks like herbal cannabis.
You can see the leaves and seeds.
This one, is resin, and it actually does smell of cannabis which is quite a unique smell.
They get to millions of containers coming through a year.
There is such a small team, they have the X-ray machine and all of that, but it seems they are fighting, I won't say a losing battle, but it is an uphill struggle.
But drug seizures like the one I've seen tonight make all their hard work pay off.
It hasn't stopped coming.
ï¿¡3,000, another ï¿¡3,000.
It is almost ï¿¡800,000 worth of drugs for organised crime, so it is serious.
There is a certain amount of excitement and silliness in this.
It is ridiculous, we keep getting more and more drugs out.
But these guys have obviously done this a few times, and they are going about their business, but for me it is staggering.
Now we have found what is in here, and documented it, what will happen to it? We will transport them to a secure location.
They are safe, they won't go walkabout.
The criminal and Financial Investigation colleagues from the UK Border Agency will take the case, investigate whether goods were going, who was meant to be meeting them.
Hopefully they will make some arrests and it would be good if we could get a conviction in court for whoever has brought this stuff in.
In terms of your job, this would be it tonight, it moves on? Once we have it secure, we will move on to the next consignment and back again tomorrow to start again.
Grinding it out again? That's right.
The cannabis in the oil drums had been imported in to the UK from Holland But it's not just drugs which are illegally smuggled in.
People are too.
And some of them to specifically work in British cannabis factories.
The properties they work in are often ordinary-looking houses rented out by organized crime groups who pay landlords six month's cash up front for no questions asked.
The gangs may rent out several properties at a time.
after thermal imaging revealed the properties to be letting off unusually high levels of heat.
They all came back what was described as abnormal heat sources, much more than the one next door, putting it in simple terms.
It is quite common to find Vietnamese nationals within the properties, certainly this side of Bristol.
The family will save up in Vietnam to pave the someone to get brought into the country illegally, more often than not.
And then they will be initiated into some sort of organised crime Group, a lot are based in London and then they are sent to all parts of the country to live in houses and to look after the cannabis plants and if they can get away with one or two crops from those houses, then that money would last the whole family for the rest of their lives in Vietnam if they can have a couple of successful grows.
people working in the factories are called gardeners and are often locked into the houses with the plants There is lots in there.
This factory has all the hallmarks of a set-up which is being run by an organized crime group.
If the police can find the gardener within the property then this might help them track down the gang behind the factory.
Hello, mate.
I thought there would be someone somewhere.
But you come.
Do you speak English? Just a little bit? What is your name? What is your name? I didn't catch that.
Come and sit down over here.
There is nothing to be worried about.
The gardener is confused and frightened, and speaks almost no English, so the police will call an interpreter We will get in touch with Language, and somebody can translate for him.
He needs someone to translate for him, he is a bit concerned at the moment.
All these rooms are converted.
Very similar to the one downstairs.
Probably 70 or 80 plants in there.
This room in here is obviously like a nursery, a proper business like set-up.
All that guy does is look after these plants.
He doesn't do have a thing else.
He trims them, that is what Mrs.
It encourages the head to grow.
Once those plans have been harvested in those rooms, these will be spread out amongst the house, or around the house for the next crop to come through.
And obviously these in here are the next batch again.
This probably a hundred plants in there, and the same in there.
That makes about 300 in this room alone.
The Police estimate there are about 600 plants in the property with an estimated street value of over half a million pounds.
I'm arresting you for producing cannabis.
We will get your things in a moment.
Do you want some shoes? Gents, if you can give this chap some space to get dressed.
This man was charged with cannabis production, and could receive a two-to-three-year jail sentence, after which he will face deportation.
But it's not just adults who are smuggled in to work in cannabis farms.
Children are too.
Some Vietnamese parents pay traffickers huge sums to smuggle their children in to the UK, but on arrival some fall into the hands of gangs.
Most victims of human trafficking are too scared to talk for fear of reprisal, but I find one Vietnamese teenager who has agreed to talk to me in a secret location.
He was trafficked into the UK aged 15 hidden in a lorry and was then put to work in a cannabis factory.
and I've asked an interpreter along to help What did you think you were coming here for? They said that once I got to Britain, I would work in a nail bar, but I had to work in a house growing cannabis plants.
Were you allowed to leave the house? In the house, what were the conditions like? There was only a small TV, no bed, only a mattress on the floor.
sounds like forced labour, slave labour.
After suffering hardships before I got to Britain, having a place to sleep and food to eat was luxury.
I think that is the saddest thing of all.
The fact that you are pleased to be in Britain illegally, restrained and kept in a house, I think that is sad.
It shouldn't have happened.
After being released by the police this young man was taken in and cared for by a foster family, and he's now living alone in rented accommodation.
You are 18 now, trying to make a life for yourself here.
Do not miss your family? At home, I only have a mother and one sister.
After leaving Vietnam, I lost contact with them.
I have recently found out that they went to Saigon to look for work, but don't know where they are, and I miss them.
I would like to find them, but I'm not allowed back to Vietnam.
During the making of this programme, I've met teenagers affected by the supply of cannabis, but I never expected someone from halfway across the globe to be one too.
Like most people in this country, my age, 25, you think, what is the harm of picking up a spliffs? If you don't do it too much, you won't get any harmful effects.
But it never really occurred to me, and I'm sure it doesn't occur to many people out there that when you buy that we'd, it is funding something.
And more often than not, it is funding organised crime.
And quite a portion of that organised crime is forcing people like that guy I just met to sit in a house for weeks if not months on end with no sunlight and no bed in this case, and that is a terrible thing to consider, I think.
It makes you look at cannabis in a different light.
Back in Bristol the drug squad are on route to what they believe could be another Vietnamese-run cannabis factory.
Vietnamese gangs arrived in the UK at the beginning of the last decade, and have slowly worked their way into most major cities in the UK.
Their business model involves turning a network of ordinary suburban homes into weed farms They enjoyed an enormous success with this in Canada before moving to Britain According to police statistics for much of the last decade, 60% of UK cannabis farms were run by Cietnamese criminal gangs Police officer ! he is in here somewhere.
I saw him at the window.
The police are convinced the cannabis gardener is inside the house.
In these situations the gardeners are often desperate not to be found as they face prison and then deportation.
Once they've been deported the gang they worked for will usually find them to pay back their loss in earnings.
We have another Vietnamese cannabis factory, and there is a man in here somewhere, but we can't find him.
It looks like there are holes and the floor, so he has either up and the loft, or down there.
Our concern now is for his welfare.
He could end up suffocating if he is in one of these holes.
After 45 minutes the police finally find the gardener hiding in the attic This Vietnamese man will have his fate decided in a court of law.
But others aren't so lucky.
In 2006 Tran Nyugen was working as a cannabis farmer in a factory in Newport in South Wales and ended up paying the ultimate price.
One night he was tending the crop in this factory.
A gang broke in, tied him up, and the crop was stolen.
It was a rival gang, they took a crop worth ï¿¡40,000.
The Organized Crime Group Tran worked for didn't believe his crop had been stolen by another gang.
He was tortured by the crime gang and its leader, and they even got his wife on the phone and made a ransom demand of ï¿¡40,000.
His wife could hear him being beaten and literally pleading for his life, and there was nothing she could do.
Two men carried a battered Tran into the entrance of the Royal Gwent hospital.
He died shortly after from his injuries.
His death led to unearthing 38 cannabis factories, and this is just a small example of what we recovered.
Tran's death turned into Gwent police's largest ever investigation.
310 officers were involved in finding production equipment and cannabis farms, breaking up an organized crime group turning over ï¿¡6 million a year.
It is incredible to think that as a result of his arrival at the hospital, it led to all this equipment, the UN a thing of 38 cannabis factories, but more importantly, finding on organised crime group that had spread across the UK into France, Germany, Berlin, the Czech Republic and across into Vietnam itself.
We in Newport knew very little about the Vietnamese community prior to this case.
But we also realised that right across the UK, there were probably other victims of this type of attack, torture, beatings, because of the fact that most of these people are illegal immigrants.
It is never coming out into the open.
Operation Viscount is still on going.
In the first three months, the police have seized over 4,000 plants.
The Avon and Somerset force put a high priority team fighting the supply of cannabis.
I'm going to meet their Head of Drugs Strategy to find out why.
I have come to talk about organised crime.
We know it is linked to Vietnamese gangs.
Organised crime is very heavily involved in cannabis creation.
With an organised crime, the Vietnamese and Chinese are very much represented.
However, now that all the other organised crime groups in the UK have realised how much money is involved, they are heavily involved.
So use a British gangs are involved as well.
Are you talking about the serious ones, the same people that supply cocaine and heroin.
There is all the violence that goes with it, gun crime, kidnap, murder.
The main fund would appear to be cannabis cultivation.
Ates lower risk to grow cannabis than to import cocaine or heroin.
So that ï¿¡20 back of cannabis somebody might buy is going into the pocket of people who use a gun crime and murder and kidnap? Yes, and I know people look at cannabis thinking it is just cannabis, but it is another legal drug, which this type of person makes an awful lot of money through.
I've seen the harm that cannabis causes for my own eyes.
I never thought I'd end up meeting a victim of human trafficking or meet young people who say they were addicted But all the time cannabis remains an illegal drug that over 2 million people want to use There will always be violent organized crime groups wanting to exploit this demand
But how much harm does cannabis actually cause? Like most young people in the UK I have smoked cannabis in the past.
Like most young people in the UK I didn't think it was doing any harm to myself or anybody else.
In the last programme, I discovered just how common the use of cannabis is, and met smokers growing it for themselves.
It is going on all over the country and you wouldn't know it is happening.
Now I want to find who's really behind the enormous boom in large scale weed production This is organized crime.
Who's buying it? And what's the cost some people are paying in addiction? Kids don't do drugs until they are teenagers.
They do, it is a fact.
I'll be embedded with the authorities trying to stop the drug being smuggled into Britain, and I'll follow the police in trying to uncover the gangs behind the cannabis business.
I'll hear from unwitting victims who've been trafficked into this country to help grow it We were allowed to leave the house? No.
The its sounds like slave labour.
And how some cannabis turf wars have even ended in murder.
Cannabis is a controversial drug and I want to go beyond the headlines To find out what's the harm in cannabis? Cannabis is a drug that has been around for 4,000 years.
But it wasn't made illegal in the UK until 1928.
Many famous people have confessed to smoking it.
Even the President of America.
In the last few years it's been reclassified from a Class C to Class B, meaning if you're caught with it you can receive up to a 5-year prison sentence, and if you're found supplying it you face up to 14 years inside.
Up until 2007 the police were busting 800 cannabis factories a year but this rocketed to nearly 7000 in 2009.
So, I want discover for myself who's buying and who's supplying the most popular drug in Britain.
The start of my search is taking me to the heart of England.
Just arriving at a pub in the West Midlands to meet Michael on Rob.
They are very enthusiastic about it.
They also play in a band.
This is Michael and Rob, one half of a band called 'Jimmy the fool.
' They're spending their day off from work practicing in their local pub.
I want to find out from the boys what it is they love about cannabis and more importantly do they know where they get it from? Welcome to the Black Country.
What an introduction.
You must be? Michael.
I am Rob.
Nice to meet you.
Thanks for letting me come to speak to you.
Might take it to you obit cannabis enthusiasts? Yes we are.
Smoked it for about 10 years.
Smoke give to enjoy music, play music and write music and just to chill out.
It sounds like a positive thing for you? Finishing work and relaxing and having a spliffs, forgetting the whole day.
I don't know, place some guitar.
Shall we go and have a spliffs? you want to pop out.
I will walk with you.
I know a lovely little spot near by.
Has smoking indoors is banned, they like to take their recreational breaks in the nearby park.
In your early 30s, you have to sneak out to have a split in the cold.
He will have the police saying, excuse me sir.
No venue have to explain what you're doing and they know what you're doing.
It is a waste of their time and mine, so it is best to stay out of the way.
How much do you smoke, get through a week? It depends on what you're doing, what your finances are like.
What the availability is like, when you don't grow it yourself.
What are you smoking? Is it skunk? It is whatever it is.
You don't know what strain it is? It's regular, I don't need to know the breed.
We have a dependable man who helps us out.
We trust the guy we buy it off.
You can grow it in bulk or grow quality.
We go for the quality.
If you want the bulk head to the town centres and find it anywhere.
But do you want to? No thank you.
Does the guy you get it off, Rovers don't forget it supplied to him? He gets it from a friend.
That sort of goes away from knowing way you get it from.
I know his friend.
I wanted to clarify, sometimes you're putting money in the pockets of someone who is very dodgy.
Michael and Rob believe they're not harming anyone because they know who they get it from.
But what happens if users don't know the source? Many people who smoke cannabis don't know where their weed comes from.
And that could be a problem.
To find out how cannabis is supplied I need to speak to a dealer who can tell me about how the business side of cannabis works from street level up to the very top? I'm in South London to meet someone who used to sell cannabis.
I am here to meet some man called Clyde.
He is a former cannabis dealer.
He should be around here somewhere.
Nice to meet you.
Are you well? Thanks for meeting me.
You are welcome.
Clyde began smoking when he was 13 and moved into dealing when he was still at school.
How old were you when you first started? 15, I became a small-time dealer.
What is the difference before you were 15 and then what you class as becoming a small-time dealer, what is the difference? Before it was just about me, not about anybody else.
If I pick something up for me, I might go out with the boys and have a smoke.
When I started dealing, people would ring my phone and ask me for stuff.
Then it was supply and demand, so I was dealing.
I did not realise when the switch actually happened.
It was only when I was at home sleeping and somebody rang my phone and I had to get up and meet them.
I realised it was a job, I'm going out in the middle of the night to meet you on a shady corner and serve you.
But when I realised I became a drug dealer.
What I want to know is who's who in the supply chain? Who was up but you, below you? At the top you have your Sir Alex Ferguson, the boss.
A lot of the time it is grown abroad and they ship it over here.
The new have farmers in England growing weed.
You have people growing it in houses.
They will sell to the manager, as it were.
He will buy it in kilos.
He will take the kilos and sell to some of the lower down the chain.
Then you have your small-time dealers like how I was when I was 15.
You buy half an ounce, by an ounce and make ï¿¡15, ï¿¡20.
How much were you are earning? The most I have ever earned from selling weed would be a couple of hundred in a week.
When dealing started, it was the buzz of being big guy of having something what people wanted.
It was never about money, gang culture for me.
People would come up to meet and ask if I had anything.
I said yes, I was satisfying somebody's need.
By doing what I was doing, in a way I was worth something.
To this group of people, I was the man to them.
That is why I started dealing and that is what happens with a lot of use.
Is that a common way for people your age for people to get a bit of money and stuff? It was.
In my area, I would say there were three reasons.
One was money, some people did it for like I say, the fame, as it were.
Some people did it because that's all they knew.
A lot of us, it is sad to say we did not know any better.
That is what around you, it is a culture.
It is not just a cup black culture, it is just a culture.
Two years ago, Clyde stopped smoking and dealing after becoming a born-again Christian He is now working as a drugs counsellor with school children.
How has your life changed? Everything.
Everything is different.
I work in the community, the same community I was helping to destroy, is the same community I am trying to repair.
We go into youth clubs, we go into schools, churches we educate on the dangers of drugs, drug prevention.
It is a total turnaround.
The cash he earned, was one of the reasons why people like Clyde going to dealing.
But the big money is might by those working high up the chain Today I'm meeting someone who grew the plant deliberately.
I am on my way to meet a cannabis farmer.
which is someone who grows cannabis We have to meet in a neutral location.
He is concerned about security and safety.
I think this is the place.
He will only meet me on condition I don't say where he is from an don't show his face.
They just call him Rob.
Cannabis farmers spread out into the suburbs and then the countryside as the police crackdown in the cities.
Now many operate in remote places like this where they can grow on notice.
I just wait now.
Hello mate.
I and James.
You were a cannabis farmer? What does that mean? Exactly as it sounds, I grew cannabis, put plants in pots.
I would grow them, water them and feed them, make sure they will warm enough and had the right amount of light.
Then I would pass them on to the wholesalers.
How long way you are cannabis farmer? Over a decade.
Tell me about the money, how much would you be learned from this? might be 4,000 a year.
It is a decent wage.
If you are growing drugs are essentially, you would be on millions? There are some people will laugh.
The majority of people in this business I know are not loaded.
A lot of them are very comfortable but they are not loaded.
Rob would earn his money by setting up and running at fully kitted out cannabis farm in a place like this.
Is this the sort of place you would use? It would need a new roof on it and walls.
But you could use some were like this.
How would you go about using this space? Making sure it was well insulated for a start.
How will probably put up to 500 plants in here with a bit of space between them.
You can keep an eye on them.
What I wanted to find out was did he work alone when he set up a factory, or was he working for with anyone else? I was an individual operator.
How many people like you did you know? A rough guess, how many people in England might be doing it? Tens of thousands, if not more.
It is a very, very common thing although it is getting tougher because police are investigating and cracking down.
the only people producing this and making money out of it, it is when you put the frighteners on people by busting people left right and centre.
Most people naturally will lose their nerve essentially and packets in.
The only people doing it are the people who don't give a monkey's.
Are the only thing that makes you do it at the moment is putting more power and money into Rob believes that organized gangs are behind the bulk of UK cannabis production, which is why busting factories is now a bigger priority for the police.
I've been following Avon and Somerset police for four weeks, on Operation Viscount, which is targeting cannabis factories not just in the cities but in rural areas too.
In Bridgwater, Somerset, the Police have received intelligence about a suspected large cannabis factory in the heart of the countryside.
It is a section 23 misuse of drugs Act warrant.
We have heard they are cultivated cannabis in the farm buildings there.
If you flip over, you will find an aerial view.
The police have been tipped off there might be anything from 300 to 1,000 plants being grown on the farm.
There are no signs of any plants being grown.
If cannabis was being cultivated, it would be hard to hide a professional set-up.
would expect to Smollett.
It is farming country! Its miles of shite! It's a fruitless 30-minute's search.
Then one policeman detects a faint smell from some haystacks.
And this time it's not coming from a cow.
There is a secret building behind the haystack, which may be what they are looking for.
The entrance to this secret building is on the opposite side of the barn, so the officers dash around.
The concealed building within this barn is beyond this Let's see what we are dealing with.
The door is purpose built out of cast-iron, and is proving difficult to open.
It is one helluva door.
You wonder what it is concealing.
40 minutes of hard graft finally pays off.
Whoever has built this has gone to great lengths in setting up Oh, yes.
It is looking good.
It looks like we have four capsules, these two and the two next door.
These are quite mature.
The police find over 400 plants worth an estimated ï¿¡400,000.
A man and a woman were later arrested for cannabis production.
The number of factories uncovered by the police has soared by 850% in the last four years.
No part of the country's immune from this boom.
Even rural areas like this where growers think they can go unnoticed.
The cannabis grown in this rural factory can end up on any street in Britain.
It might even stay local.
Half an hour down the road from Bridgwater is Glastonbury, I'm here to meet a teenager who is in trouble with the law for his cannabis habit It's 8am on a Tuesday morning, and I'm at the home of 14 year-old Nathan Are you Kerry? I and James.
Kerry's son Nathan is a heavy smoker of cannabis.
You have a visitor.
Morning, Nathan.
Sorry to do this to you, mate.
I you're not going to be up for school this morning? is on bail but half 11.
What is the answering bail for? Probably burglary or something.
Nathan's been arrested for burglary, and he attends a school for students with behavioural difficulties.
Is this the normal routine, trying to drag him out of bed? Yes, he wakes up with a dope handover.
He finds it really difficult.
Does he smoke in the mornings? He does, if he has got some.
He will try to have a snack before he goes to school.
He started when he was 10.
And that is when the behaviour problems started, as well? 10 years old, that his primary-school.
People think kids don't do drugs until they are teenagers, well, they do.
And it's a fact.
Nathan's dad died of when he was six, and Kerry's subsequent two relationships were violent ones which Nathan witnessed.
Obviously that had an effect.
He ended up playing up at school, and the smoking was a way to forget what he had been through.
It is just soul-destroying to think he is wasting his life away.
He is damaging his body.
And I don't know what to do.
If I knew, I would be doing it.
His cannabis use is leading him to repeatedly break the law.
Nathan? Are you coming down? Give us a rough time? Couple of minutes? He is.
Nice to finally meet you, Sleeping Beauty.
I'm James.
Have you got any with you this morning? I haven't.
Do you smoke every day? A little bit, yes.
How much do you smoke a day? How much I can get, really.
How do you get the money? don't know.
Sometimes I do work round the house, or just random things.
I'm going to ask you something quite direct.
You're going to post bail today.
You're posting bail for burglary, right? Was that to get money for it? it was.
If there is that something you have done quite often? I have done it before.
So you go and burgle people's has his? Yes.
I don't do it all the time.
Hardly ever.
Nathan's committing burglary to get money to fund what he feels is becoming more than just a habit.
Do you feel the addicted? I don't know.
I think I am addicted to it, yes.
Do you want to stop smoking it? Are you doing anything to help you stop? I do.
I am meeting these people call on the level, they say they will help.
On the Level is Nathan's local drug advice centre.
I hope he gets the help he needs.
I just met young Nathan.
It is a bit shocking, smoking from such a young age.
At that age, I was running round the playground.
He has been dealing with a lot of stuff in his life.
It feels like he is missing out on something, and he is replacing it using cannabis, which is shocking to me.
It is easy to be judgmental, and I am trying not to be.
It seems he has a lot of problems to deal with.
I didn't think it was possible to be hooked on weed in the way Nathan is, so I'm curious to learn more about dependency from a project here in Ipswich.
It's called the Iceni Project, and they run one of the very few cannabis dependency programmes available in Britain.
Sorry to interrupt.
Hello, everyone.
Is it OK to coming? Absolutely! I and James, nice to meet you all.
Hello, everyone.
Where shall I sit? Come and sit near me.
I'll look after you.
Have you got a cannabis problem? No, I haven't.
Have you any understanding of it? I have known people in my life that have had drug addictions.
I was unaware that cannabis can be addictive.
Would you guys say it is addictive? Yes.
Mentally addictive.
I would say it can be physically addictive.
I used to wake up and get sheiks, hot and sweaty, feel faint.
I did feel I was addicted to it, I had to have it every day, and my anxiety would come out if I didn't.
So I felt like I was addicted.
Jo started smoking at 15, and her habit grew so strong that when she had children, she struggled to look after them.
my kids taken off me for alcohol and cannabis, and when I lost them, I got really bad.
But now I have given up.
How long have you not smoked for? 15 weeks and one day.
Not that she is counting! How many kids have you got? I have got two.
And you just went cold turkey? And you couldn't have done it without this place? They have given me a lot of health -- help and support.
They have stopped me from relapsing about a million times.
How much were you smoking? Up to ï¿¡50 a day.
How much is that? Nearly half an ounce.
Every day? Scientists haven't always agreed whether cannabis is addictive.
A Government report two years ago however confirmed what I'd just heard, that heavy cannabis users do experience psychological craving for the drug and physical withdrawal symptoms if they stop.
I wanted to find out from Susie, the programme's counsellor if she thinks cannabis dependency is a big problem than I'd thought.
I know quite a lot of people use cannabis occasionally, but in terms of addiction, it doesn't seem like that bit of a problem to me, in terms of numbers.
Not everyone is a problem, but far lot of people, it is.
A woman phoned today, she hasn't left her house in 20 years, because she is so paranoid.
What is that? How often you get people like that? Lots of times.
Weekly, daily? Weekly.
People call all the time now that they know this course is happening.
We could fill this place.
We really could.
I now have a better understanding of the harm cannabis can cause individuals.
Some people need help with addiction.
The Iceni project has an 85 % success rate on helping users give up cannabis, but it's one of only a few in the country.
That's because cannabis addiction isn't given the same funding as Class A drugs or alcohol.
I'm trying to find out how cannabis is supplied to people like Jo and Nathan.
So far I've met a dealer and a farmer, but I want to speak to someone linked with those earning the seven figure sums at the very top of the weed business.
I am here on the White Cliffs of Dover to meet Jason Wilson.
His father was a cannabis smuggler for years.
It wasn't until the law finally caught up with him Jason's dad is Anthony Spencer who was the head of an organized crime group and is currently serving time in a UK prison for cannabis smuggling.
Jason has since written a series of cartoon novels about his Dad's experiences.
I'm curious to find out where cannabis comes from and how it's smuggled in to the country without it being detected by the UK Border Agency Who police the borders.
If you are going to smuggle a large quantity of cannabis in, would it be on a vessel like that? That looks like a ferry that you might take to France.
Yes, it is just a regular ferry.
Lorries, coaches, booze cruises.
It might be on that ferry.
There could be a lorry with a consignment on board.
A lorry driver just doing his normal job, it just happens this time of his consignment will pay very well! There are many trade routes from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Carribean smuggling cannabis into the UK, but I wanted to know which one Jason's Dad used.
The source is the mountains of Morocco and the farmers.
You are dealing with farmers, or with the so-called Moroccan Mafia.
They have connections with a Brit, in my father's case, it was him.
Once you have got your sauce, you bring it over by boat.
You have a little team down in the south of Spain, they packet for transport.
They would drive the lorry all the way up to Calais for you, and then it should be straightforward through to Dover at the other end, and then goes to another safe house where it is broken up and distributed.
Within days, the money starts coming in.
The money goes back to Morocco, and the whole chain begins again.
As simple as that.
It is a real involved organisation.
This is real organised crime.
If it was disorganised, it wouldn't last long.
It is very organised, and run like most businesses are, but just without the paperwork! So was your dad the guy at the top? He was the top guy who controlled it from Spain into England.
He was convicted in Spain.
He is out next year, and I think he is planning on being retired know.
If you don't mind me asking, how much did he earn? In Morocco, say you are buying it and selling it on wholesale, you make a lot of money.
ï¿¡100 a key, and you sell it for ï¿¡1,000 a key? You have things to pay out on the way, and you can pay people well, but while that is going well, you can do brilliantly.
But at some point, something will go wrong.
It is like gambling.
At some point, things just go wrong.
Do you think the UK Border Agency are doing a good job in deterring smugglers? There is only so much they can do.
They can't go through everything.
You can't scan lorries the way they would like to do think they can.
It is just a needle in a haystack.
That is what they are looking for The UK Border Agency face a massive challenge policing Britain's 600 ports and stopping cannabis being smuggled in.
Smugglers use all kinds of clever ways to sneak cannabis into the UK without being detected.
Over 23 million passengers and six million vehicles pass through UK ports each year.
Officers use a combination of intelligence leads and experience when deciding which vehicles to select for inspection.
We are task would looking for various things, that might be people hiding in lorries, it and might be drugs, firearms excise goods.
The officers making the selections are making it for a specific reason.
If there is a space, it does not matter how big a house more, it can be filled with anything.
Cannabis, any other drug or excise goods.
This French lorry is full of egg crates and has been picked to be searched.
Officer Bev Wetherill has a routine set of questions that the driver needs to answer.
Did you see this loaded? Did you see this put on the lorry? Yes.
The no drugs, no guns, no pistols? No gas, no knives, flick, stab? Obviously we don't all speak different languages so we try to speak to them in their own language, but it is not always very easy.
My French is very limited to what I learnt at school.
They do understand some of the things.
With limited access to search effectively inside the lorry the officers decide to x-ray its contents.
The driver now has a nervous wait to see if he's in the clear.
He go-ahead image.
Received.
Image operator said it is clear or so he is OK to go.
We need to give him the necessary paperwork.
Last year the UKBA seized 24.
5 tonnes of cannabis.
Which was 80 % of the total amount captured.
But preventing the drug passing through the ports is only one half of the job.
The other half is to do the same thing at the UK's 63 airports.
So I'm here at Gatwick to see exactly what the officers see exactly what they.
Where do you find most of the cannabis comes from? It comes from Jamaica.
Why is it the Caribbean specifically? It grows there.
We obviously get personal use amounts coming in from Europe and the rest of the world, but for our purposes we are looking for suitcases full of cannabis.
We get them mainly from Jamaica.
People actually transported in suitcases? More or less.
The drug is hidden in a variety of ways.
There has been a spate of cannabis being hidden in pineapples.
They put a block of cannabis inside an bluetits back up.
In pineapples? Anything at all.
It is pretty bold isn't it? You keep someone employed over there, it keeps us busy here.
There are an estimated ten million suitcases arriving at Gatwick each year So officers have to be selective what they choose to inspect.
The UKBA officers use a combination of sniffer dogs, x-ray machines, tip-offs and intelligence to detect cannabis in luggage Does it come of dark? .
.
blue or something.
It is a different colour, but I like to look at the black and white, I find it easier.
That one looks strange? There is a lot of bottles in there.
White rum.
Any bags looking suspicious are checked using legal powers.
We didn't find any cannabis on this particular flight from Jamaica.
We found coffee, condoms, seaweed, we did not find any cannabis.
But, they are finding cannabis on a weekly basis here at Gatwick.
The UKBA officers may have been empty handed at Gatwick, but another team at Heathrow have got several hands full Having just uncovered 160 kg of cannabis in three cardboard boxes Which has been sent from South Africa via an air freight cargo company.
The drugs are removed and will be put away in secure storage.
But whoever arrives to pick up the repacked boxes will be unaware of this.
An investigation team have been on stakeout for 36 hours watching the depot, waiting for the drugs to be collected.
The team have received a call telling them that a man has arrived at the air freight depot to collect the boxes, so the officers need to catch him before he gets away A man is arrested However at this stage in the investigation, It is not clear if he is responsible for importing drugs or just a paid career.
During questioning, the suspect says he's been paid cash to collect the boxes on behave the man he met a couple of weeks ago.
The suspect confesses that he has some heroin on him Thanks for telling us for being honest about what you've got The police have get in a police van here I'm sure they'll put their ears on for you get over and done as quickly as possible And then we'll be taken off to the nearest police station The man was bailed pending further investigation.
Smugglers tend not to work just office hours and neither do the staff at the UK Borders Agency.
I had just put a clean shirt on and going out for some dinner, so I thought.
But I got a call from the UK Border Agency to go to Felixstowe because they have some sort of cannabis job on, they have found some in a trailer.
I don't know much more than that.
I am pretty excited.
It is all a bit covert and it is a privilege being here.
Not many people get to do this.
I've been invited to a secret inspection area and officer Andy Rose is waiting to meet me.
How are you doing? In the middle of it? What has happened, last night some colleagues were examining some freight that arrive on a ferry from Holland.
You can see it over there, those oil drums, they are chemical drums.
We opened one of them last night and found what we believe to be cannabis.
So we are going to have a look in all of the drums today, get all of the packages out, see what we have got.
It was full of sand.
And those of the packages? Basically they are hidden amongst the sand.
How much would be in each of the drums? We are not sure exactly, probably 100 packages in each and each package probably has a street value of ï¿¡3,000.
So you're talking thousands of pounds worth of cannabis.
This one looks like herbal cannabis.
You can see the leaves and seeds.
This one, is resin, and it actually does smell of cannabis which is quite a unique smell.
They get to millions of containers coming through a year.
There is such a small team, they have the X-ray machine and all of that, but it seems they are fighting, I won't say a losing battle, but it is an uphill struggle.
But drug seizures like the one I've seen tonight make all their hard work pay off.
It hasn't stopped coming.
ï¿¡3,000, another ï¿¡3,000.
It is almost ï¿¡800,000 worth of drugs for organised crime, so it is serious.
There is a certain amount of excitement and silliness in this.
It is ridiculous, we keep getting more and more drugs out.
But these guys have obviously done this a few times, and they are going about their business, but for me it is staggering.
Now we have found what is in here, and documented it, what will happen to it? We will transport them to a secure location.
They are safe, they won't go walkabout.
The criminal and Financial Investigation colleagues from the UK Border Agency will take the case, investigate whether goods were going, who was meant to be meeting them.
Hopefully they will make some arrests and it would be good if we could get a conviction in court for whoever has brought this stuff in.
In terms of your job, this would be it tonight, it moves on? Once we have it secure, we will move on to the next consignment and back again tomorrow to start again.
Grinding it out again? That's right.
The cannabis in the oil drums had been imported in to the UK from Holland But it's not just drugs which are illegally smuggled in.
People are too.
And some of them to specifically work in British cannabis factories.
The properties they work in are often ordinary-looking houses rented out by organized crime groups who pay landlords six month's cash up front for no questions asked.
The gangs may rent out several properties at a time.
after thermal imaging revealed the properties to be letting off unusually high levels of heat.
They all came back what was described as abnormal heat sources, much more than the one next door, putting it in simple terms.
It is quite common to find Vietnamese nationals within the properties, certainly this side of Bristol.
The family will save up in Vietnam to pave the someone to get brought into the country illegally, more often than not.
And then they will be initiated into some sort of organised crime Group, a lot are based in London and then they are sent to all parts of the country to live in houses and to look after the cannabis plants and if they can get away with one or two crops from those houses, then that money would last the whole family for the rest of their lives in Vietnam if they can have a couple of successful grows.
people working in the factories are called gardeners and are often locked into the houses with the plants There is lots in there.
This factory has all the hallmarks of a set-up which is being run by an organized crime group.
If the police can find the gardener within the property then this might help them track down the gang behind the factory.
Hello, mate.
I thought there would be someone somewhere.
But you come.
Do you speak English? Just a little bit? What is your name? What is your name? I didn't catch that.
Come and sit down over here.
There is nothing to be worried about.
The gardener is confused and frightened, and speaks almost no English, so the police will call an interpreter We will get in touch with Language, and somebody can translate for him.
He needs someone to translate for him, he is a bit concerned at the moment.
All these rooms are converted.
Very similar to the one downstairs.
Probably 70 or 80 plants in there.
This room in here is obviously like a nursery, a proper business like set-up.
All that guy does is look after these plants.
He doesn't do have a thing else.
He trims them, that is what Mrs.
It encourages the head to grow.
Once those plans have been harvested in those rooms, these will be spread out amongst the house, or around the house for the next crop to come through.
And obviously these in here are the next batch again.
This probably a hundred plants in there, and the same in there.
That makes about 300 in this room alone.
The Police estimate there are about 600 plants in the property with an estimated street value of over half a million pounds.
I'm arresting you for producing cannabis.
We will get your things in a moment.
Do you want some shoes? Gents, if you can give this chap some space to get dressed.
This man was charged with cannabis production, and could receive a two-to-three-year jail sentence, after which he will face deportation.
But it's not just adults who are smuggled in to work in cannabis farms.
Children are too.
Some Vietnamese parents pay traffickers huge sums to smuggle their children in to the UK, but on arrival some fall into the hands of gangs.
Most victims of human trafficking are too scared to talk for fear of reprisal, but I find one Vietnamese teenager who has agreed to talk to me in a secret location.
He was trafficked into the UK aged 15 hidden in a lorry and was then put to work in a cannabis factory.
and I've asked an interpreter along to help What did you think you were coming here for? They said that once I got to Britain, I would work in a nail bar, but I had to work in a house growing cannabis plants.
Were you allowed to leave the house? In the house, what were the conditions like? There was only a small TV, no bed, only a mattress on the floor.
sounds like forced labour, slave labour.
After suffering hardships before I got to Britain, having a place to sleep and food to eat was luxury.
I think that is the saddest thing of all.
The fact that you are pleased to be in Britain illegally, restrained and kept in a house, I think that is sad.
It shouldn't have happened.
After being released by the police this young man was taken in and cared for by a foster family, and he's now living alone in rented accommodation.
You are 18 now, trying to make a life for yourself here.
Do not miss your family? At home, I only have a mother and one sister.
After leaving Vietnam, I lost contact with them.
I have recently found out that they went to Saigon to look for work, but don't know where they are, and I miss them.
I would like to find them, but I'm not allowed back to Vietnam.
During the making of this programme, I've met teenagers affected by the supply of cannabis, but I never expected someone from halfway across the globe to be one too.
Like most people in this country, my age, 25, you think, what is the harm of picking up a spliffs? If you don't do it too much, you won't get any harmful effects.
But it never really occurred to me, and I'm sure it doesn't occur to many people out there that when you buy that we'd, it is funding something.
And more often than not, it is funding organised crime.
And quite a portion of that organised crime is forcing people like that guy I just met to sit in a house for weeks if not months on end with no sunlight and no bed in this case, and that is a terrible thing to consider, I think.
It makes you look at cannabis in a different light.
Back in Bristol the drug squad are on route to what they believe could be another Vietnamese-run cannabis factory.
Vietnamese gangs arrived in the UK at the beginning of the last decade, and have slowly worked their way into most major cities in the UK.
Their business model involves turning a network of ordinary suburban homes into weed farms They enjoyed an enormous success with this in Canada before moving to Britain According to police statistics for much of the last decade, 60% of UK cannabis farms were run by Cietnamese criminal gangs Police officer ! he is in here somewhere.
I saw him at the window.
The police are convinced the cannabis gardener is inside the house.
In these situations the gardeners are often desperate not to be found as they face prison and then deportation.
Once they've been deported the gang they worked for will usually find them to pay back their loss in earnings.
We have another Vietnamese cannabis factory, and there is a man in here somewhere, but we can't find him.
It looks like there are holes and the floor, so he has either up and the loft, or down there.
Our concern now is for his welfare.
He could end up suffocating if he is in one of these holes.
After 45 minutes the police finally find the gardener hiding in the attic This Vietnamese man will have his fate decided in a court of law.
But others aren't so lucky.
In 2006 Tran Nyugen was working as a cannabis farmer in a factory in Newport in South Wales and ended up paying the ultimate price.
One night he was tending the crop in this factory.
A gang broke in, tied him up, and the crop was stolen.
It was a rival gang, they took a crop worth ï¿¡40,000.
The Organized Crime Group Tran worked for didn't believe his crop had been stolen by another gang.
He was tortured by the crime gang and its leader, and they even got his wife on the phone and made a ransom demand of ï¿¡40,000.
His wife could hear him being beaten and literally pleading for his life, and there was nothing she could do.
Two men carried a battered Tran into the entrance of the Royal Gwent hospital.
He died shortly after from his injuries.
His death led to unearthing 38 cannabis factories, and this is just a small example of what we recovered.
Tran's death turned into Gwent police's largest ever investigation.
310 officers were involved in finding production equipment and cannabis farms, breaking up an organized crime group turning over ï¿¡6 million a year.
It is incredible to think that as a result of his arrival at the hospital, it led to all this equipment, the UN a thing of 38 cannabis factories, but more importantly, finding on organised crime group that had spread across the UK into France, Germany, Berlin, the Czech Republic and across into Vietnam itself.
We in Newport knew very little about the Vietnamese community prior to this case.
But we also realised that right across the UK, there were probably other victims of this type of attack, torture, beatings, because of the fact that most of these people are illegal immigrants.
It is never coming out into the open.
Operation Viscount is still on going.
In the first three months, the police have seized over 4,000 plants.
The Avon and Somerset force put a high priority team fighting the supply of cannabis.
I'm going to meet their Head of Drugs Strategy to find out why.
I have come to talk about organised crime.
We know it is linked to Vietnamese gangs.
Organised crime is very heavily involved in cannabis creation.
With an organised crime, the Vietnamese and Chinese are very much represented.
However, now that all the other organised crime groups in the UK have realised how much money is involved, they are heavily involved.
So use a British gangs are involved as well.
Are you talking about the serious ones, the same people that supply cocaine and heroin.
There is all the violence that goes with it, gun crime, kidnap, murder.
The main fund would appear to be cannabis cultivation.
Ates lower risk to grow cannabis than to import cocaine or heroin.
So that ï¿¡20 back of cannabis somebody might buy is going into the pocket of people who use a gun crime and murder and kidnap? Yes, and I know people look at cannabis thinking it is just cannabis, but it is another legal drug, which this type of person makes an awful lot of money through.
I've seen the harm that cannabis causes for my own eyes.
I never thought I'd end up meeting a victim of human trafficking or meet young people who say they were addicted But all the time cannabis remains an illegal drug that over 2 million people want to use There will always be violent organized crime groups wanting to exploit this demand