Emergency calls about a robbery lead police to 270 cannabis plants

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A number of early morning emergency calls about several men trying to break into an apartment has led to one man being charged with producing cannabis.

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Police found no robbers at the scene but did arrest an 18-year-old man who was found at the property, alongside 270 cannabis plants, reports Oxford Mail.

Police responded to the calls around 3:30 a.m. earlier this week. Reports had said several men were trying to gain entry to a property located near a busy shopping strip in Oxford, England.

Responding officers failed to locate anyone in the area but did note a large industrial fan and “substantial heat” emanating from the property. The plants were quickly discovered once officers gained entry to the apartment.

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The man has been remanded into custody and will appear before Oxford Crown Court for a plea and trial preparation hearing on August 19. He faces a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment.

It’s not the first time that the sound of fans has tipped off police to a possible cannabis grow.

Last year, police discovered more than 1,000 cannabis plants in an otherwise empty industrial unit in Glasgow after officers on patrol noted the sound of large fans operating and caught a whiff of cannabis.

Upon entering the warehouse, officers discovered the grow and estimated the operation to be worth about £600,000 ($1 million). No one was found at the address.

Earlier this month, another report of a robbery led to five people in the U.K. being arrested after Nottinghamshire Police responded to a reported break-in and instead unearthed a large-scale cannabis grow-op.

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The discovery of “hundreds of plants spread across multiple rooms” was made shortly after 5 a.m. on July 12, notes a police statement, which adds the plants and growing equipment were seized and destroyed.

Those busts are small potatoes compared to another U.K. seizure earlier this year, again prompted by reports of a burglary.

After receiving a call from a concerned citizen, police arrived at the property, located on the outskirts of Wakefield City Centre, to find more than 1,400 cannabis plants.

“The call to police initially came in from a local resident as a report of a suspected burglary at an empty property. Attending officers located a cannabis farm of approximately 1,400 plants with a street value of over £1 million (about $1.6 million),” a spokesperson for the police said in a statement.

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No one was at the address at the time of the raid and police are asking anyone with information about the property to come forward as the investigation continues.

The U.K. government is currently considering new drug laws that would lead to more severe penalties for recreational drug consumers, including the possibility of having their passports and driver’s licences seized.