Drug raids in SmithsWood

One of my teams working out of Chelmsley Wood Police Station have just finished a sustained period of law enforcement activity against drug dealers in the north of Solihull Borough.

The Smithswood Neighbourhood team under the guise of Operation Gardener a part of the force wide Operation Serve and Protect. The operation was possible thanks to the large amount of community intelligence the public gave to us.

Operation Gardener was implemented in Smithswood on 18th of January this year and concluded this week. The aim was to combat the production, sale and misuse of drugs as this had been highlighted by the community in the many meetings we held with them. We also believed that the drug users were committing other crimes to fund their habits, particularly shoplifting in the local Town centre and other property crimes such as breaking into cars.

As a result of this operation we executed 28 warrants and on 26 occasions we used a forced entry to secure the evidence. We made 18 arrests, from which 5 people were charged with possession of class B drugs , 3 were charged with possession with intent to supply class B drugs, & 5 were charged with production of class B drugs. We also issued nearly £500 worth of penalty notices to locals in possession of small amounts of cannabis.

A drug offender led away to answer for his actions

In addition we recovered a taser for which we charged the occupier with possession of offensive weapon; we seized 3 dangerous dogs.

This period of enforcement was only made possible by community members coming forward with information about criminals in their area!

An example of a typical 'cannabis factory' we uncovered

This is a clear message from the law abiding citizens of Solihull that drugs and drug dealers will not be tolerated in their area.

Anyone with information on drug dealers should call us on 0345 113 5000 and we will act on your information!