Shining like beacons among their neighbours – these exclusive images show how hi-tech equipment on board the West Midlands Police helicopter detects cannabis factories and leads officers right to the front door of growers and dealers.

Heat-seeking monitors fixed to the aircraft are able to scour the region and pinpoint locations where the drug is being grown.

Click on the image on the right to see more pictures

And it has proved successful in weeding out the blight of drugs and leading to the discovery of hundreds of cannabis factories located right across the region.

"If there is a cannabis production set-up, the helicopter will use the capabilities it has and always find it," said Mike Hall, from the force's Cannabis Disposal Team.

"The amount of heat given off by these things is immense. Sometimes there are houses operating up to 50 600-watt lamps at a time.

"We act on intelligence that comes from the community and the helicopter will search for large amounts of heat being given off when it is in those locations that have been identified.

"Factories do emerge a lot. Any drugs operation is a blight on the community and cannabis is no different. We will always take reports seriously and act on it."

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The West Midlands has seen an explosion in the number of cannabis farms set up in houses and commercial premises.

Drugs bosses rent out properties but then convert rooms into cultivation outlets, often forcing illegal immigrants into growing the drug and locking them up in a factory for weeks on end.

But the force is tackling the issue and regularly shuts down factories that have been formed in communities throughout the region.

According to the latest figures, Mr Hall's disposal team has recovered more than £22 million worth of drugs since October 2010.

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It has now dismantled more than 600 factories and seized almost over 100,000 plants and preventing their illegal crop from reaching the streets.

The team has even uncovered factories hidden in secret basements in a bid to hide the tell-tale heat signature.