And now, as West Midlands Police's Cannabis Disposal Team continues its fight against the menace of the region's drug pushers, the hidden world of their work has been revealed.

Driving into the yard of the team's secret headquarters, the unmistakable stench of cannabis is immediate and overwhelming.

That's because, sitting open in the parking lot, is a huge metal container filled to the brim with bin bags stuffed with weed seized from farms across the West Midlands and Staffordshire.

The team raid an average of three 'farms' per day but it is not just drugs they are seizing.

Team manager Mike Hall with some of the lamps seized

Other items they have removed from drugs farms lie around the yard - a bin half full of light bulbs, used to heat the plants as they grow. Around £750,000 in light bulbs, costing around £35 each, has been confiscated and recycled since the team were set up in October 2010.

There are also hoses used for watering, an air filter used to mask the distinctive smell, and even four small mopeds and a quad bike, all seized from farms.

Entering the hub of the team's operations, a whiteboard lists their latest jobs. An address in Walsall, 217 plants found. Another in Dudley, 393 plants.

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"We've done 1,526 jobs since we started," says Mike Hall, the cannabis disposal team manager.

"That's about 500 a year. On average we are looking at around three a day, five days a week."

Describing the 10 strong team's role in the force, he said: "It's specifically to tackle the rise in cannabis factories, and the dangerous environments that the police are finding themselves in.

"They are probably the most routinely dangerous environment that they find themselves in on a daily basis."

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On average, he says that one fire a week is caused by a cannabis factory.

Growers will by-pass the electricity meter of a house or factory unit to steal a constant, direct current straight from the grid to feed their lights, fans, and other equipment. This inevitably sparks blazes that have destroyed whole buildings, and cause a danger to neighbours. They are such an issue that the fire service even has a fake cannabis farm at its training centre in Smethwick.

Rows of cannabis plants that are nurtured under lights

Mike said: "We've known people lifting their floor boards up in their bay windows of their houses, and dig out into the street to steal from the mains cables."

After the discovery of a farm, Mike's team will first go in and assess the structural stability of the house or unit. Another danger, both to police and fire officers, is sodden floorboards. Cultivators will lay wet soil and compost on the ground of upper levels, soaking the wood beneath.

They then do a detailed scene plan, assessing the number of plants and type of equipment, before clearing everything out.

Mike said: "Everything we do is environmentally friendly - the plants, after decomposing in our containers, go to land fill or sometimes to incineration, to create energy that goers back into the grid.

"The light bulbs we recycle for the glass and metal, and the hoses, tools, gardening equipment and soil we donate to local charities."

Cannabis farms have changed slightly since the team's formation. Mike explained that initially the team would clear large factory units containing thousands of plants, but, as that meant that the gangs and growers were losing a large chunk of their income in one swoop, the farms are now being spread across a number of smaller locations.

The recession has also meant that it is not only organised gangs that grow cannabis - like plots straight out of cult drama Breaking Bad, those who have lost their jobs and need money will try their hand at cultivation.

In Staffordshire, Stoke and Burton, where the pottery and brewing industries have declined, are particular hot spots. There are also more empty units available for farms to be set up.

Police say it is an ongoing issue rather than a growing problem. Among the sites they have recently targeted is a cannabis factory worth more than £15,000 which was discovered at a flat in Great Wyrley earlier this month after a raid by police.

Mike added: "The drugs for us are secondary - it's our primary function to deny assets to criminals.

"People growing or organised crime groups, they are not going to be spending their money on shoes or orphaned children, it goes into their criminal world to fund prostitution, class A drugs, human trafficking, even for arms.

"People think we are prosecuting the two-plant gardener, we are not, we are looking at the wider-scale cultivation of cannabis, denying criminals their funds."