Huge cannabis factory found spanning three floors of Birmingham tower block

'Questions need to be asked about how those people were so brazen, living there and running a cannabis farm,' says councillor

Police found a cannabis factory covering three floors of a Birmingham tower block (PA)

A huge cannabis factory spanning three floors of a derelict tower block has been discovered in the middle of a housing estate in Birmingham.

Police found plants with an estimated street value of £500,000 after breaking into the building through an internal steel-barred door, reinforced with a metal grille, and an industrial-sized padlock.

Officers also unconvered living quarters and stocks of food for those tending the "sophisticated" operation, as well a loading winch fitted into one of the block’s empty lift shafts.

The 20-storey block Warstone Tower in the Hodge Hill area has been empty for some time and earmarked for demolition by the city council.

West Midlands Police’s cannabis team found plants growing on the 16th floor but equipment sprawled across the 15th and 17th floors, covering 31 rooms in total.

The plants found in the tower block are estimated to have been worth £500,000 (PA)

Electricity was being abstracted, while another room had containers holding gallons of water with a pumping system installed, along with ducting for the air conditioning system.

The cultivators of the drug had knocked holes in the floors, ceilings and walls to run hundreds of feet of piping and cable. Reams of wiring had also been run up the internal staircases.

Further inside the warren of rooms, beds with mattresses, duvets and pillow cases had been brought in, along with food provisions including a box of tomatoes.

Police said the operation was 'sophisticated' (PA)

Members of the public alerted police on 24 January.

Five men were arrested at the scene on suspicion of cannabis cultivation.

Detective Inspector Jim Church said: “This is a sophisticated, organised crime operation that has clearly been running for some time, but which we’ve now been able to dismantle.

“We’ll be working throughout the day to establish the full scale of it and make the property safe.”

The tower was due to be demolished in August as part of a housing redevelopment plan.

Local councillor Majid Mahmood said: “Questions need to be asked about how those people were so brazen, living there and running a cannabis farm, when you’ve got shops nearby and a church, so you’ve got a lot of footfall.

“I think a lot of people might have thought they were the [demolition] contractors, coming and going, but with the stench of the plants that must have been coming from there, I’d have thought someone would have noticed.”

He added: “The only silver lining is because this has now happened, it means the city council will secure the property.”