A man has been arrested after a cannabis farm was discovered in a home.

The Class B drug was found being grown in the living room of the property and upstairs in two bedrooms.

Police were alerted to the crop in St Andrews Road, Gillingham after a utility company reported an electricity meter had been tampered with.

Officers raided the property yesterday morning and found around 100 marijuana plants.

A 31-year-old man from Gillingham was arrested on suspicion of cultivating cannabis and remains in custody as enquiries continue.

District Commander for Medway, Chief Inspector Rachel Harris, said: "Cannabis is an illegal drug and those who choose to cultivate it are making a deliberate choice to break the law.

"Although I cannot talk about the specifics of this case, in general large cultivations are also often managed by organised crime groups that exploit vulnerable people by making them grow the cultivations in servitude.

"Abstracting electricity also needlessly presents a significant fire risk to neighbouring properties and such activity cannot be tolerated.

"I would encourage anyone who has suspicions that an address is being used to cultivate cannabis to report it to us via our website or by calling 101."

One resident of St Andrews Road told the Messenger: "There were about 13 police officers, here yesterday.
"When you looked inside the house it was absolutely crammed full of the stuff.

"They were pretty big plants too.

"The police filled two vans with all the plants and then had to put more in police cars because they ran out of room.

"We did have our suspicions and thought there was criminal activity in there.

"The windows were all blacked out and you never saw anyone going in and out.

"We used to see food getting passed in to the house."

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