CRIME gangs growing cannabis in Keighley are involved in people trafficking and human slavery.

The organised gangs running some cannabis farms pose a real risk of bringing guns and violence to local streets.

This is the stark warning from West Yorkshire Police’s drugs coordinator Bryan Dent.

He spoke as new police figures revealed Keighley had suffered hundreds of crimes relating to cannabis production in the past five years.

Mr Dent, a former police officer, said: “We have found that cannabis cultivation is linked to organised crime groups.

“They have links to violence, firearms, human trafficking and modern-day slavery.

“They will inevitably attract more criminality to the community.”

Mr Dent, a retired police officer, is spearheading a new county-wide police focus on the dangers posed by large-scale cannabis production.

This includes a social media blitz aimed at deterring young people using cannabis, and encouragement for residents and landlords to report suspicious activity by neighbours who may be growing the plants.

The police plea echoes the concerns of Lawkholme residents who last month called on neighbours to report suspected dealers on local streets.

The Keighley News last week reported how police had raided two cannabis farms in recent weeks, one with 37 plants in Ingrow and another with 25 plants in Parkwood.

Mr Dent this week revealed that 286 offences of drug production had been recorded in the Keighley area since 2009.

There was a massive rise to 90 offences last year, double the 2012 figure, but the figure had dropped for 2014, with only 31 offences in the first nine months of the year.

Mr Dent said: “The offences will range between a small number of plants being grown, to hundreds.

“Cannabis causes harm to individuals, even young people who are growing two or three plants.”

Mr Dent said police no longer regarded cannabis as a “soft” crime due to its growing links to organised crime.

He said: “The old argument that ‘it’s only cannabis’ does not wash anymore.

“We’ve found that over the past few years organised crime groups are seeing it as less-risky than other crimes.

“All of a sudden it’s taken on a sinister aspect. You have people paying off their debt and they’re bonded into a cannabis farm to pay off the money.”

Mr Dent said the new social media campaign aimed to highlight the social and legal issues of cannabis use to young people.

He added: “It’s not okay to take cannabis – the chemical in the plants is harmful for young people’s brains.”

West Yorkshire Police’s new focus follows a “scratch and sniff” campaign last month in which 12,000 cards, smelling of the drug, were sent to West Yorkshire residents to help them identify cannabis “hot spots” in their neighbourhoods