Slaves are chained up and fed dog food in secret UK ‘blood cannabis’ farms
IT’S seen as a ‘soft’ drug, without the links to underworld gangs and brutal violence that cocaine and heroin have.
But a Sun Online investigation can reveal that behind Britain’s cannabis trade lies a dark and shocking reality, in which around 3,000 are cultivating crops in dire conditions.
Many of them are dangerously smuggled into the UK in lorries — the death of 39 Vietnamese people, including 10 teenagers, in Essex in October highlighted the lethal peril of such journeys.
Police are too busy to focus on weed farms
Giant cannabis farms have been uncovered all over the UK — including in town centre bingo halls and even a disused police station — but thousands of smaller operations are being run all over the country.
And millions of Brit users have helped the trade thrive — around 30 per cent of the UK population aged between 16 and 64 admit to having tried cannabis, which is roughly 10 million people.
And in 2017, four young Vietnamese workers were discovered sleeping on mattresses and locked in a while they tended 4,000 plants in an operation worth £2m a year.
Brewer says: “Cannabis is seen as a bit of a soft drug, unrelated to violence and sold through traditional drug dealing methods. I don’t think people always make the link to the violence and control that goes with it.”
Efforts to take down the kingpins behind the trade have had piecemeal success.
The investigation uncovered a network of 45 cannabis farms and storage units as far away as Coventry, thought to have netted the gang £25m.
Cops losing fight against gangs
But despite the success of some high-profile operations, police only busted 8,600 cannabis farms in 2018-19 - a thousand more than the previous year but still just over half the 16,590 raided in 2011-12.
And Volteface, a non-profit group campaigning for cannabis legalisation, says Ministry of Justice data obtained under a freedom of information request shows prosecutions for growing weed fell 63 per cent in the five years to 2018.
It comes down to police budgets and priorities.
Volteface director of policy Liz McCulloch, said: “Police are withdrawing from policing cannabis markets.
"Their budgets are stretched and it’s not a priority anymore.
“Growers are probably a bit more confident there’s a good chance their activities aren’t going to be found out.”
Tony Saggers, former head of the NCA’s Drugs Threat and Intelligence added: “We seize what we look for, and we look for what we prioritise.
“Considering all the pressures on policing, not least another drug generated threat in County Lines – it doesn’t surprise me that less focus has been on cannabis, this does not mean it is not still being taken seriously”
Mimi Vu, a world expert on the trafficking of Vietnamese children and young people, hopes the container tomb tragedy in Essex will serve as a wake-up call for Vietnam’s youth to seek their fortune in their own booming economy, instead of gambling their lives on a deadly lorry journey to the UK.
“They grow up believing their best bet is to go overseas,” she says. “But what happened in Essex has brought everything into the open, and shown that the dangers are real.
“There’s no way now that anyone can say we’re making up stories to scare them off.”
But even if fewer Vietnamese do decide to make that perilous crossing, police intelligence reveals there will still be a plentiful supply of trafficked slaves to help grow weed.
The Sun wants to Stamp out Slavery
Slavery takes a variety of forms, but most commonly forced labour, sexual exploitation, domestic work or forced criminal activity.
The Home Office estimated that there are 13,000 people held in slavery in the UK, with the Global Slavery Index suggesting the figure could be as many as 136,000.
The UK recognised a staggering 5,145 victims from 116 countries in 2017, including adults who had been used for organ harvesting and children that were forced into sexual exploitation.
Our Stamp Out Slavery campaign, in conjunction with Co-op, has highlighted the plight of some of Britain's slaves working in car washes and nail salons, farms and factories all over the UK.
We called on the government to extend support for Britain's slaves beyond the current 45-day limit and backing Lord McColl's private members Bill demanding support be extended to a year.
In April this year, a high court judge suspended the paltry time limit and said it should be subject to a full judicial review.
There is growing evidence that ruthlessly efficient Albanian gangs are now moving into cannabis.
And Home Office data suggests the number of trafficked Albanians exploited in the UK for labour – which includes cannabis farms – is on course to double this year.
Tony Saggers, former head of the NCA’s Drugs Threat and Intelligence says, cannabis users should give more thought to the human cost of lighting up a spliff.
“Leisure users blame prohibitionists and the law for preventing them the freedom of choice to use cannabis,” he says.
“There’s a selfish inclination to do what they want instead of thinking of the wider consequences.”
*Le is a false name. His whereabouts are still unknown.