Police find more than 900 East Midlands cannabis farms

More than 900 cannabis operations have been discovered in the East Midlands in the past year, a Freedom of Information request has shown.

In Nottinghamshire, there was a 10-fold increase in the finds - from 44 in 2005 to 463 in 2010.

The cannabis was often grown in warehouses where organised gangs set up sophisticated growing equipment.

Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire had a total of 921 cannabis discoveries in 2010.

Cannabis operations have been found in suburban homes where the growers bypass the electricity meter to power the growing equipment, police sources said.

Supt Mark Holland of Nottinghamshire Police said: "We have neighbourhood policing well embedded into Nottinghamshire, so we are getting further information to actually go in and discover them."

Derbyshire Police found 99 cannabis factories in 2005, but that increased to a total of 271 in 2010.

In Leicestershire, the figure rose from 35 cannabis operations to 187 over that same five-year period.