Psychotic Super Skunk flooding UK grown in booby-trapped Brit homes… could vile gangs have a secret drug farm near YOU?

WALK through any British town for long enough and you are likely to eventually catch the distinctive whiff of cannabis. But rather than being the pungent second-hand smoke from a local pothead, it could now be the sign of an illicit major business operating right under our noses. Gangs are now growing the majority of the UK’s cannabis in homes, shops and factories Credit: Merseyside Police Houses have been booby-trapped with trip wires and home-made pipe bombs to protect cannabis crops from police raids Credit: SWNS Criminal gangs are now growing the vast majority of the UK’s cannabis inside Britain – often in homes, shops, factories and farmhouses that can hide in plain sight. These buildings are even being rigged with potentially deadly booby-traps for criminals to protect their illegal harvest from police raids. And they are using human trafficking victims to cultivate the plants using special techniques to grow a highly potent “super skunk”, which experts warn can cause psychosis and other mental health problems. Former Met Detective Superintendent Simon Moring MBE, who led the Flying Squad catching some of Britain’s most infamous criminals, says this new super-strong skunk is a major health risk. He explains: “If you go back to when I joined the police 35 years ago, there was plenty of cannabis around but that tended to be cannabis resin and that was virtually all imported. “Now I estimate that around 95 per cent of cannabis seized in this country is home-grown. “It has been a massive swing. “The gangs have now developed cultivation techniques to get really high-potency cannabis – or ‘skunk’ as it’s known on the street. Special techniques are being used to grow a highly potent form of “super skunk” Credit: Alamy Ian Claughton booby-trapped his home in Barnsley to protect his drugs business from intruders Credit: PA “Cannabis contains THC, which is the active ingredient, and they are making really strong THC skunk at the minute. “It can have really bad effects on mental health. It is much, much stronger than the stuff that used to be imported.” More than a million plants with a street value of £210million are seized by police each year, according to recent figures. And up to £3.5billion is thought to be spent by cannabis buyers in the UK every year. In the race to corner this extremely lucrative weed market, gangs are going to greater lengths to up the potency of their product. They are using methods like hydroponics – growing plants directly in water rather than soil – and using other growth mediums to maximise their unlawful yield. “They have refined their cultivation techniques to manage nutrient uptake”, Simon explains. “Controlling the lighting and the separation of female plants have led to increased yields and higher potency. “You see really strong THC levels of cannabis now and there are increasing concerns that this high potency skunk is giving rise to psychosis and mental health problems. “That is a threat and a risk to cannabis users.” And it isn’t just the users being put at risk by the multi-billion pound cannabis farming industry. Gangs use trafficked, vulnerable or heavily indebted victims to run the grows in homes and farmhouses converted into death traps. Police in Cambridgeshire found a drug farm with a £2m crop inside a former Poundland Credit: Not known, clear with picture desk Gangs are putting the police and public at risk with their booby-trapping efforts Credit: PA They illegally tap into the mains electricity to steal the power to fuel their operations, and they are even booby-trapping sites putting police and the public at risk. In February this year a Barnsley man was jailed for rigging his home with Home Alone-style booby-traps including crow-scarers and home-made pipe bombs to protect his cannabis growing empire. And last year Cambridgeshire cops uncovered a drug farm with a £2m crop inside a former Poundland store that had been rigged with a potentially fatal booby-trap. The back door had been electrified powerfully enough to kill, and the gang had drilled down into the floor to access the mains electricity to fuel their crop. Simon says these potentially lethal booby-traps pose a huge risk to cops trying to bring down the drug gangs. “They use an awful lot of electricity and generate an awful lot of heat,” he explains. “So very often they will steal the electricity, bypassing the meters, which is extremely dangerous. “The grows give off a lot of heat and that has been one of the techniques we use to catch them, with the heat coming off the property detectable, though increasingly growers are switching to LED lighting, which runs cooler and makes that harder. Retired Met Detective Superintendent Simon Moring MBE says the new super-strong cannabis is a major health risk Credit: Supplied Simon says it’s now big business in the UK and ‘beats smuggling by a long way’ Credit: PA:Press Association “Everything is linked. Every big drug gang is going to be money laundering, and they will also be using debt-bonded human trafficking. “So the Vietnamese victims that they use have been brought into this country illegally, they will often be in debt bondage. “They will often have been brought here by their fellow countrymen on a promise of getting a great job, they have to pay a lot of money to come here, they will have their passport confiscated, there will then be a debt to work off. “They are just really exploited. “You will see one or two young Vietnamese men on a grow, and they will also be trained to booby-trap the grows as well, for example they will wire up the door handles to the mains, so if the police went in they could get an electric shock. “This is one of the big risks for police going to cannabis grows.” And the gangs are also using other ways to avoid detection – including launching grows in smaller, residential properties. Simon explains: “In addition to UK criminals, the trend of Vietnamese controlling the cannabis grows has now shifted towards Albanians. Gangs are focusing on smaller crops and hide them in residential properties to avoid detection Simon explains Vietnamese victims are trained to booby-trap the grows to work off debts Credit: SWNS “The big hydroponic cannabis factories with lights have now moved into smaller grows, but more of them, so if they get raided, they lose less of their product. “This is really big business in the UK and it beats smuggling by a long way. “You don’t have to get across the border, you are cutting out the middlemen and you have less chance of getting detected.” This trend towards a greater number of smaller grows increases the likelihood of illegal cannabis farms cropping up on unassuming residential streets – or on remote farms. These properties are regularly taken over by “cuckooing” – a criminal practice where gangs or dealers take over the home of a vulnerable or drug-dependent person to use it as a base for their illegal activity. “In the past decade there seems to have been a shift from the big grows”, Simon explains. “Out in the countryside they would use farmhouses or greenhouses, but now you see them cuckooing smaller properties. “This effectively hides the grows in legitimate-looking residential properties and has the advantage that if they get raided, they only lose a small amount.” Cops say tell-tale clues can give away the signs of cannabis grows in your neighbourhood. A guide from Staffordshire Police said clues to look for are: A pungent smell, lots of condensation in windows, blacked-out windows, lots of deliveries, a ventilation buzz, lights on night and day, extra power cables, visits in unsociable hours. Cannabis was previously downgraded from a Class B drug to Class C in 2004, but was put back up to Class B in 2009, and Simon believes one of the drivers for this was the potency and the public health risk. He says: “Nothing is really victimless. “You have got people being exploited, you have got high potency drugs being sold to drug users, you have got money being laundered, and you have got the fact that people are being held in modern slavery.” A Home Office spokesperson told The Sun: “Production and supply of cannabis can result in prison sentences of 14 years, an unlimited fine, or both. “Cuckooing is also illegal, carrying a standalone sentence of up to five years. “We have dedicated more than £34 million for policing to disrupt organised crime drug networks. “Since the election, more than 2,800 violent gang leaders have been arrested and charged, with 6,900 safeguarding referrals for vulnerable children and adults.” Booby-trapped drug farms across the UK Ian Claughton, 60, "heavily fortified" three properties in Grimethorpe, Barnsley, with fishing wire, adapted crow-scarers and home-made pipe bombs to protect his cannabis growing operation. Claughton and his ex-wife Lesley, 59, who “assisted and encouraged” his criminality, were found guilty of drug and firearms offences following a trial at Doncaster Crown Court in November. In February Claughton was sentenced to seven years in jail at Sheffield Crown Court, while Lesley was handed a 21-month sentence, suspended for two years. Their trial heard police raided the couple’s properties in Brierley Road in May 2024 after Border Force officers discovered imitation firearms in a parcel addressed to Lesley Claughton. About 100 neighbouring properties were evacuated while specialist detectives from the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit (YHROCU) searched the Claughtons’ homes. Inside, officers initially found two primed mantraps, two potential firearms and four large plastic bags of cannabis buds, with an estimated value of £16,000. A cannabis growing set-up with 24 plants was found hidden in a secret room at one next-door property, and, at his ex-wife’s home, 1.5kg of amphetamine was found. Imitation firearms were also found along with a crossbow and a home-made flamethrower, fashioned from a fire extinguisher filled with petrol. A large amount of cash was recovered, including £27,000 found stitched into a sofa, which the couple initially claimed had been obtained from car boot sales and inheritance. Police said he claimed the amphetamine was his to use for weight loss and chronic fatigue, and that he had been growing the cannabis under duress and threats from unnamed others and that he had not benefited financially. Ian Claughton told jurors the fire extinguisher-turned-flamethrower had been used to “wow” people during Bonfire Night and that he got the inspiration for his booby-traps from the Macaulay Culkin film Home Alone. Last year a drug farm with a crop valued at £2m was set up inside a former Poundland shop by a criminal gang – who fitted the door with a potentially fatal booby-trap. Twenty rooms on two floors of the old Woolworths and Poundland building in Huntingdon High Street had been transformed into living and growing space for hundreds of cannabis plants, protected by an electrified door that could have killed intruders. The operation was uncovered when a Cambridgeshire Police officer was passing by and noticed brand new CCTV cameras had been fitted on the derelict building, which had been lying empty since the cut-price chain moved out. Inside the building there were also double beds, televisions and pots and pans in the kitchen area – all signs that the farm had been in operation for some time, and had several people involved and possibly even living there, with police suspecting that modern day slavery victims had been forced to live and work there. In June, six men were jailed for a total of more than 13 years after police uncovered Nottinghamshire Police’s largest cannabis seizure and a drugs factory worth almost £5 million. The huge grow was found after a police officer literally followed his nose when the overwhelming smell of a cannabis farm of more than 4,800 plants, all at varying stages of maturity, inside a disused industrial unit in Botany Avenue, Mansfield. The gang had gone to huge lengths to avoid detection, with entrances bricked and boarded up, and two steel doors welded shut to make access more difficult. There were two large growing rooms, a drying and production area, a living quarters with six beds, a kitchen, and a shower room. The electricity supply had also been dangerously bypassed. Six men pleaded guilty to being concerned in the production of Class B drugs when they appeared at Nottingham Crown Court on 2 June and were remanded into custody. They each denied a second charge of possession with intent to supply the Class B drug, which were all left to remain on file. Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court on 30 June, they were sentenced to a total of more than 13 years in prison. In Liverpool in 2022, a huge building fire led to the discovery of a booby-trapped cannabis farm. Firefighters rushed to reports of a fire in the early hours to find the cannabis grow of 270 plants. It is believed the fire started at a bridged electricity meter and caused extensive damage to the entrance and smoke damage throughout. The flat was made safe by an engineer, who also found door handles had been electrified.