Police happen to discover cannabis plantation: local residents had sounded the alarm because they heard someone scream (inland)
The police discovered a cannabis plantation on Thursday in a building on Moerplas in Ruisbroek (Puurs-Sint-Amands). It would be a professional plantation with around 750 plants. A judicial investigation has been started.
The discovery of the cannabis plantation came by coincidental. On Thursday afternoon, the police received a report from local residents that they heard someone loudly screaming near a house on Moerplas, the busy connecting road between Kalfort and Ruisbroek. The police went to the scene to see what was empty. No one would have been found anymore, but in the building the inspectors bumped into a fairly large cannabis plantation.
According to our information, it was a professionally designed plantation with the necessary heat elements to grow the plants and with odor filters to prevent the typical scent in the neighborhood from being perceptible. Whether the electricity was also illegally drained is not clear. Usually that is the case because cannabis plantations need a lot of power and to be sure that the electricity company would not get an suspicion with high consumption.
According to our information, it was a professionally designed plantation with the necessary heat elements to grow the plants and with odor filters to prevent the typical scent of cannabis in the neighborhood
Permiter
The police set up a perimeter around the house to not let any traces be lost. How long the cannabis plantation has been there and how many times have already been harvested, it is now part of the recorded judicial investigation.
It was in this home that the plantation was found. – © Theo Derkinderen
The local residents we spoke to were shocked that a cannabis plantation was found. « We have never observed a cannabis scent. Two Dutch people stayed here, we saw that when we walked past the house, we saw that the shutters were sometimes a bit up. All at the same height. But now with the police raid, the shutters are all down, » it sounds in the neighborhood.
We have never observed a cannabis scent. Two Dutch people stayed here for what we had heard
Local residents
Hurry
On Thursday evening, a team of civil protection came to the Moerplas to destroy the cannabis plantation. The plants were brought out one by one and censed in a special machine. A job that took up for a long time. The typical cannabis scent could be observed in the neighborhood while hiding.
The civil protection had a big job to remove and hide all the plants. – © Theo Derkinderen
The police have now sealed the building. The Antwerp public prosecutor confirmed on Friday that a cannabis plantation has been discovered and that a judicial investigation has been started, but did not want to say more information about the case. Whether someone has been arrested is not known. Nor is it clear whether the man who shouted loudly could be identified and what the reason for his screams was.
