Police in Sparkhill have seized more than £1.4 million worth of drugs and stolen car parts as they crackdown on criminals operating in the area.
Hundreds of vehicle parts from luxury motors were seized when officers swooped on a unit during a blitz on suspected chop shops.
So far they’ve been identified as belonging to more than fourteen stolen vehicles, and are worth roughly £800,000.
Local officers, acting directly on intelligence from the community, have conducted four raids since the beginning of June, at properties linked to alleged criminality.
They uncovered three large-scale hydroponic cannabis factories; two operating on Philip Sidney Road, Sparkhill and a third on Springfield Road, Moseley. Between the three grow-houses there were almost 600 cannabis plants, with an estimated street value of more than £600,000.
Investigations following these warrants remain on-going.
Sgt Hanif Ullah, from the Springfield neighbourhood team, said: “Vehicle crime and the illicit drug trade have been driving the rise in violent crime here in West Midlands for some time.
“A spiralling demand for car parts is fuelling the rise in vehicle crime, including car key burglaries and car-jackings, meanwhile drug-running is fuelling knife crime amongst young people.
“We are determined to crack down on organised crime in all its forms, and during these raids we recovered a substantial amount of stolen and illegal property. We believe this is a significant blow for the organised crime network in Birmingham and we won’t relent in our efforts around this.
“We do rely on members of the public for help in taking criminals off the streets – so if you know about crime or criminals operating in your area, we’d urge you to tell us so we can take action.”
Contact us via Live Chat at west-midlands.police.uk between 8am to midnight, or call 101 anytime.
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