A 37-YEAR-OLD man has been charged with producing cannabis after more than 1,000 plants were found in a raid at a Lower Gornal home.

Police made the discovery after executing a drugs warrant at the four bedroom semi-detached property in Himley Road around 7am last Thursday, March 5.

PC Paul Jones, of Sedgley police station, said officers found thousands of plants crammed in all rooms of the house apart from the kitchen.

Ten officers from the Gornal and Woodsetton neighbourhood policing teams forced entry into the house and one man, who was found inside the premises during the early morning raid was arrested.

Police have since charged a 37-year-old man with the production of cannabis and obtaining electricity. He appeared before Dudley Magistrates Court on Friday, March 6 and has been remanded in custody.

PC Jones said it was difficult to estimate how much the cannabis would have been worth, due to fluctuating prices, but he was confident it would have been a “significant amount”.

As well as discovering the plants, which were all in different stages of development, officers also found about 3,000 litres of fertilizer and drug paraphernalia including more than 70 heat lamps.

Officers have donated a large amount of the fertilizer to Hillside Herbs in Kates Hill - a project which is run by St Thomas’s Community Network, in partnership with the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers.

The scheme, which was set up in 2000, trains volunteers in different aspects of organic horticulture and gets them to grow their own vegetables and herbs.

PC Jones said: “There is no force policy in place to not recycle items, so we thought that instead of getting a skip and binning everything from the house, we would try and see if we could donate it to the community.”

The heat lamps have been donated to Dudley Zoo and Baggeridge Country Park, as one of their rangers has a connection with the Herpetological Society which breed and care for native species of reptiles and amphibians.

Collecting the haul of lamps, Steve Gallis from Baggeridge Country Park, said: “We are extremely grateful to the police for contacting us. The lamps will be put to good use.”