HIGH VOLTAGE

>> Pearson wants joint operation to take down Albánian criminals >> Crooks are operating cannabis farms in every town in Scotland'

- MARK MCGIVERN

ALBANIAN drug gangs are making millions from superstrong cannabis farms and harming communities across Scotland, a former drug tsar has warned.

Graeme Pearson, who headed up the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency, says police and power companies need to work together to take out the powerful cannabis crimelords.

He claims the gangster-run farms are operating in every town in Scotland and could easily be detected by power firms due to the massive amount of energy they use.

He has called for the companies to highlight all the potential farms to police so they can swoop in and take out the criminals before they harvest their crop.

Pearson told the Daily Record: "This organised crime is picking apart and destabilising communities" He added: "When we are in an age of smart meters to check every penny of domestic supplies, surely we can track every major increase in outage that inevitably comes with a drug cultivation at a rented flat or an unoccupied business premises?

"How come, when an empty building is suddenly using an industrial amount of electricity, nobody notices? "How come these people can move into a flat, for instance, which had a previous domestic supply and it then goes industrial and power suppliers don't notice? "I would like to see a discussion of ways to encourage or compel the power companies to contact law enforcement when this happens and they could quickly take it from there."

Proposing a joint working operation between police and the firms, Pearson added: "If they can do it for customers, they should be able to do it for criminal gangs.

"Why is it not part of their intelligence process that they pass on the information to law enforcement?" Courts across the country have heard cases involving the production of tens of millions of pounds worth of powerful "skunk" by Albanian gangs.

The farms involve rented homes and empty business premises being ripped apart to create planting areas.