[b]Drugs raid on Nigerian diplomat's home after heating is turned up
Justin Davenport, Crime Correspondent
28.06.10 London Evening Standard





Scotland Yard has admitted that police raided the Hendon home of a diplomat attached to the Nigerian High Commission after the warmth given off from his heating system was mistaken for signs of a cannabis factory.

Officers searched the house of the Commissioner's deputy head of political affairs, Ikeczukwu Nwokike, after a helicopter using thermal imaging equipment spotted what appeared to be a higher than normal heat coming from the roof.

Drugs farms often use high-powered lights which give off huge amounts of heat to aid the growth of the illegal crop.

Police obtained a search warrant and raided Mr Nwokike's home, apparently not having checked the identity of the occupant.

It is not known if the official was home at the time. Police found no drugs and traced the heat source to the central heating system.

An insider said the raid took place during a cold spell earlier this month and the central heating in the house was turned up to the maximum.

A police spokeswoman said: “We can confirm a warrant to search for cannabis plants was executed at a home in north London on June 17 by officers acting on information from the Met air support unit.

"There were no drugs found and no arrests made. Further inquiries traced the heat source to the heating system.”

A spokesman for the Nigerian High Commission said that although the operation could have been interpreted as a violation of diplomatic conventions, the High Commission would not be taking the matter to the “extreme”.

He added: “We accept the explanation that the helicopter detected something but that these things don't necessarily work with fine precision.”

Police regularly use the force's helicopter to trace cannabis factories. Last year patrols identified 160 houses as possible cannabis factories, of which 113 were found to be growing the drug under “hydroponic conditions”.

About £13.5 million worth of cannabis was seized in raids on cannabis factories in London.

The Met witnessed a peak in drug farms in 2005/06 when 648 were found in London but since then the number has fallen as organised crime gangs, mainly from south-east Asia, have moved out to the suburbs and Home Counties.