Half a million pounds worth of cannabis seized and two quails rescued in Oldham

Officers from Oldham discovered an industrial-scale cannabis farm at an address on Rock Street in Oldham’s Town Centre on Wednesday morning (6 September 2023).

600 plants were found inside with officers believing the grow to be worth an estimated street value of £500k.

After further inspection of the address, two quails were also found. The two birds were seized by police and handed over to the RSPCA to be re-homed.

No arrests have been made and enquires are ongoing at this stage.

Detective Inspector Nick Helme from Oldham districts Challenger team said: “This find was off the back of some intelligence we received from the public, we acted quickly and thankfully the team managed to get into the address and recovered a substantial amount of the Class B drug.

“Cannabis farms can be a substantial fire hazard with the amount of electricity that is being extracted to grow the plants.

“While we have nobody in custody for this crime, we are working hard to identify those responsible and once we manage to do that, they will be held accountable.”

If you have any information that you would like to share, you can contact officers on 0161 856 8999 quoting log number 1149 of 06/09/2023, or call the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

Would you know if a property was being used to cultivate drugs? A powerful distinctive sweet, sickly aroma; frequent visitors throughout the day and night; blacked out windows; chinks of bright light throughout the night; birds gathering on the roof, particularly in cold weather; noise from fans; large amounts of rubbish including compost bags; electricity metre being tampered with.

Individually these activities may seem commonplace, however, together may indicate something more suspicious.

Information from the public plays an incredibly important role in these warrants time and time again – please let us know if you have any concerns about drug activity in your local area.

If a crime is in progress, always dial 999. Alternatively, you can report it online using the Live Chat button.