A postman with a keen sense of smell discovered something not quite right with a Christmas card he delivered this week.

In fact, he sniffed out what he believes was the smell of cannabis on the package, that was being sent to an address in South Devon.

Suspicious that the envelope contained a festive gift of drugs instead of a five pound note tucked inside a card, the postman handed it into police.

They are now investigating the incident, according to the Plymouth Herald.

Police who went to search Lee Hicks' home for cannabis were beaten to it by someone else, a court heard.

Hicks, 40, had been growing the drug in a fortified outbuilding at his home in Sallis Close, Northway, Tewkesbury, and police went straight there to search after arresting him at another address.

But by the time they got there someone had broken down a reinforced outer door, unlocked the inner door and removed practically all trace of the growing plants.

All police found were some seeds and leaves, said prosecutor David Maunder at Gloucester Crown Court.

Despite the limited evidence found, however, Hicks pleaded guilty to a charge of producing a controlled drug between February 16 and March 17 this year.

Cannabis plants worth more than £62m are seized every year by police.

And a report by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) has linked the cultivation of the illegal plant to other crimes including money laundering, human trafficking and illegal immigration.

The study said commercial cultivation of cannabis "continues to pose a significant risk to the UK" with more than a quarter of a million plants seized every year.

Data used in the report said most of those caught commercially cultivating cannabis are white British men aged between 25 and 34.

"Reports suggest a new trend of cultivation sites being controlled by white British organised crime groups which employ Vietnamese nationals who are forced to work in cultivation," the report said.

An average of a quarter of a million cannabis plants are discovered each year across the country.

And a study has said this would have a total street value of more than £62 million.

The figures are from a National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) study. It’s based on information from the returns of 27 police forces across the UK, and they added the commercial cultivation of cannabis “continues to pose a significant risk to the UK”.

They say in some cases the production and selling of the class B drug was used to fund other criminal activity – money laundering, human trafficking and illegal immigration.

Police chiefs’ study draws link between drug cultivation, modern slavery and people living illegally in UK

There is a continued link between the commercial cultivation of cannabis, modern slavery and people living without legal permission to remain in the UK, according to a new report by the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

The report, based on three years of data from police forces across the country, also shows that commercial cultivation is being used as a means to fund other criminal activity, including distribution of class A drugs and money laundering.

Ministry of Justice will be able to detect prisoners using the synethic drug from early next year

The crew of a Royal Navy warship seized around £3m worth of cannabis during a security patrol in the Mediterranean.

The Lynx helicopter from Portsmouth-based frigate HMS Richmond was sent in to investigate after spotting a suspected drug smuggling boat. With Richmond nearby, her Royal Marine boarding team was sent into action. The crew of the smuggling vessel then threw their drugs shipment - which would have had a street value of £3m overboard and fled. Richmond’s team recovered 1,015kg of cannabis bound for mainland Europe.

Prof. Shitij Kapur. Explanation Awaited.

On Friday, 27th November 2015, the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London issued a press release titled “Study shows white matter damage caused by ‘skunk-like’ cannabis”.  As a result, hundreds of media outlets across the world have published to the effect that cannabis use causes changes in the corpus callosum, the largest white matter structure in the brain, which is responsible for communication between the left and right hemispheres.

The gradual legalisation of cannabis across US states is a triumph for the American Dream, says Sarah Dunant.