VIDEO: Police find a Gateshead drugs factory during a series of raids

This is the moment officers raided a drugs factory and broke up a network of hardened organised criminals:

Six suspected drug dealers were arrested last week after police burst into 24 addresses across Gateshead in a series of dawn raids.

Officers from Northumbria Police carried out the targeted activity as part of Operation Sentinel to combat offences linked to a Western Balkan organised crime group.

Their investigation had identified a network of suspected drug dealers believed to be responsible for building large-scale cannabis farms.

And across last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday they executed warrants at the properties in Gateshead to put a halt to the illicit activity taking place across the borough.

Now the Force have released body worn video (BWV) footage of the moment they burst into one address and found home cannabis operation.

It was one of three farms they uncovered during the three-day period of activity earlier this week.

Detective Chief Inspector Angela Hufton, of Northumbria Police, has said the action should be considered a victory in the ongoing fight against organised crime.

“Organised criminality is a scourge on our communities and we will do everything we can to put those involved in illicit activity before the courts,” said Det Ch Insp Hufton.

“The raids this week show that we will be proactive in our fight against organised crime and that approach will continue in the coming weeks and months.

“There has been activity across the country to tackle criminality perpetuated by West Balkan criminal groups and that is happening in our region to.

“The warrants this week should be considered a success. We have made arrests, destroyed their cannabis farms and put a huge dent in their pockets.

“But it would not have been possible without the community reporting suspicious activity and so we need you to continue to call us if you see something that doesn’t look quite right.

“With your help we can crackdown on offences like drug dealing, money laundering, fraud, exploitation and modern day slavery.”

The activity in Gateshead comes just over a month after a national operation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) to tackle a Western Balkan organised crime group.

That saw 18 people arrested at addresses in London, Birmingham, Reading, Blackburn and, more closely to home, two suspects arrested in Sunderland.

All six of those arrested in the raids in Gateshead this week were male. Three suspects were released under investigation and one more was released with no further action.

But two men – aged 31 and 23 - have already been charged in relation to some of the farms uncovered during the activity.

Anyone who wants to report information about drug dealing or illicit activity in their community can do so online at the ‘Tell us Something’ pages of the Northumbria Police website.

You can also call 101 or contact independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.