Police have seized as much as £130m price of hashish as a part of a nationwide crackdown, described because the "most significant" operation of its variety in UK regulation enforcement historical past.

Officers found greater than 180,000 hashish crops in the course of the sequence of co-ordinated raids, aimed toward unearthing and disrupting organised crime teams (OCGs) throughout England and Wales.

Police additionally found 20 firearms, £1m price of cocaine and £636,000 in money in relation to the month-long crackdown, which occurred throughout June.

Steve Jupp, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for Serious and Organised Crime, mentioned the operation had "successfully disrupted a significant amount of criminal activity".

"We know that organised networks involved in cannabis production are also directly linked to an array of other serious criminality such as class A drug importation, modern slavery and wider violence and exploitation," he mentioned.

"The intelligence gathered will also help inform future law enforcement activity across the country."

Named Operation Mille, the crackdown concerned officers co-ordinating a thousand search warrants final month.

Read extra:Cannabis plants 'worth £1.3m' seized by policeGermany unveils plans to legalise cannabis

Police say searches and arrests have been made in all counties in England and Wales.

Alongside native police forces and Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCU), the operation concerned officers from the National Crime Agency and Immigration Enforcement.

The goal of the operation was to disrupt OCGs by taking out a key supply of their income, whereas additionally apprehending a lot of these concerned.

A complete of 967 folks have been arrested for offences together with hashish cultivation, cash laundering and weapons offences, of which greater than 450 folks have since been charged.

Mr Jupp mentioned: "Cannabis-related crime is usually regarded as 'low degree', nevertheless there are clear patterns across the exploitation and violence OCGs are utilizing to guard their enterprises.

"We also frequently find that cannabis production is just one aspect of their criminal operations and that they are complicit in wider offending which blights our communities.

"We've not solely been capable of disrupt the legal operations of a big variety of organised crime teams, but in addition elevated our understanding of their different legal actions."