Look: Police bust another cannabis farm on Newport high street

Officers found the site of a “significant” cultivation in the disused premises above The Alexandra pub on Commercial Street at around 8am this morning, Thursday, November 2.

Close to 30 personnel, including firearms officers with portable chainsaws and detectives, swarmed the building between the Salt and Pepper Tavern and Nationwide bank.

A police dog guarded a side entry on Friars Street before entering the fray while a helicopter whirred overhead.

The team made short work of one entry point on Commercial Street but the other – on the Salt and Pepper Tavern side – took a more forceful effort.

Officers swept the building for traps and checked it was safe to continue bashing the second door.

With two ways in and no way out, the two people inside retreated to a single room while the officers came to terms with the scale of the cultivation inside.

They were later arrested and taken away in police vehicles, and remained in custody as the Argus went to press.

This is just the latest in a series of cultivation shutdowns in Gwent. Not even a month ago, on October 10, officers arrested two men who went on to be charged for producing the Class B drug at the former site of the Wildings department store, also on Commercial Street.

They are due to appear before the crown court on November 9.

“The spaces in the Wildings building were large, but this has lots of small rooms,” said Superintendent Jason White, fresh from the raid. “It was like a labyrinth of leaves.”

Another officer compared the building to a “maze”, suggesting the force may need to recruit structural engineers to reverse the handiwork of the cultivators inside.

Last month, they ran an “intensification week” against county lines drugs activity, arresting 14 people, dismantling two large-scale cannabis farms and recovering 18 kilograms of amphetamine.

Before today, the force estimated they had seized just under £4 million worth of cannabis from Newport since March.

From initial estimates, officers believe they have discovered a greater quantity of cannabis today than in the former Wildings.

'Happy Hunting'

In the hour before the raid, the broad alliance of police personnel reviewed their preparations at Newport Central station.

A medium-sized room with computer desks, filing cabinets and smiley team photos on the wall, it could have been a school classroom – but all eyes were on the board.

They discussed the weather conditions – where and how to engage any suspects, and how not to – with safety for each other being the primary concern.

By the end of the briefing, the studious classroom feel had dissipated, replaced with the kind of adrenaline-lined buzz one might expect in a locker room before a football game.

The departing message: “Happy Hunting”.

Superintendent White says this morning’s action, which several onlookers watched play out whilst snapping photos with their phones, should assure people across Newport about the force’s commitment to tackling organised crime.

"We've undertaken a further drugs warrant at the flats above us in the heart of Newport city centre, where we've uncovered a significant cannabis cultivation," he said, speaking to the Argus after the raid.

"Like everything else, a great deal of this is based on intelligence from landlords, from all our partners, our communities and residents who live in the area. There is meticulous planning in terms of the layout, looking at suitably trained resources to ensure that we enter in a safe and expeditious manner.

"All the doors inside the building were reinforced with additional doors, which proved problematic in terms of that expediency of getting through, but I'm satisfied we had sufficient resources and we're containing the building, both inside and outside.

"We've been working very closely with our partners, the local authorities, the National Grid and indeed the landlords and retailers in the city centre with ourselves. But again, this is very much a force-wide issue at the moment."

“People should take the assurance that we are tackling organised crime. That’s what it is, fundamentally – organised crime taking place in the heart of Newport,” he said.

“My plea to people, those living and indeed visiting the area, is to be vigilant and report anything that they deem to be suspicious. People coming and going carrying certain items such as electrics, fertiliser, pots – all the things that are associated with a cannabis cultivation.”