One month later, police found a stolen laptop inside a car used by the crooks and learnt they were using tracking software to watch Newton Heath growers and Vietnamese gangsters in Cheetham Hill.Īdam Watkins, prosecuting, said victims were very unlikely to report the offences - and there was a ‘real danger of serious violence between rival criminal gangs’ instead.

In April Calder was arrested with a combat knife in his car, but the plot went on. Officers found the thieves were using their own knowledge of growing so they could strike when plants were ‘ready for harvest’. Police bugged Calder’s car and learnt one grower was followed from Ardwick to Sale in alternating cars. Two days later they raided another grower in Failsworth, escaping with a duvet cover full of weed. In March the gang tried to raid an address in Hyde - but were chased off by a farmer with a massive dog. Each admitted conspiracy to burgle between March and June. Ryan Hayes, 26, of Barsdale Avenue, Moston was jailed for 32 months, Paul Andrews, 25, of Pitmore Walk, Moston, three years and nine months, and Jack Biernat, 27, of Thatch Leach, Chadderton, was jailed for three years. Now Calder, of Hillbrook Avenue, Moston, and Hall, 29, of no fixed address, have been jailed at Manchester Crown Court for three-and-a-half years and four years respectively. The mob’s hi-tech methods not only revealed the extent of their operation - but also helped police to shut down the illegal cannabis farms.

The Dogs by Robert Calder