Organised gangs across the UK are increasingly using rented residential properties to set up illegal cannabis farms, with police warning the trend poses a serious risk to neighbouring households.
According to Greater Manchester Police (GMP), these operations often involve crude and dangerous attempts to bypass electricity meters to avoid the soaring energy costs associated with indoor cannabis cultivation.
This illegal tampering significantly increases the risk of electrical fires, endangering innocent residents living nearby.
Police have also reported a rise in so-called “taxing” raids – violent confrontations where rival gangs attempt to steal crops from each other’s grow houses.
Officers say these incidents can involve “significant violence” and often take place in quiet suburban areas.
Between May 2024 and April 2025, GMP uncovered 402 illegal cannabis farms, highlighting the scale of the problem in Greater Manchester alone.
Sky News was recently granted access to a live police raid in Wythenshawe, where officers entered a semi-detached property on a peaceful residential street.
Inside, one room was filled with mature cannabis plants, while another had been converted into a “drying room”, with harvested cannabis ready for packaging and distribution.
Police estimated the street value of the drugs in the tens of thousands of pounds.
Outside the home, officers discovered that the electricity meter had been illegally bypassed – a criminal offence known as abstracting electricity, which involves dishonestly using or diverting power.
One individual present at the property was arrested during the operation.
