Huge cannabis haul found in Wigan by police amid fears of youngsters being recruited to drug dealing

It was intelligence suggesting criminals were operating around Mesnes Park and Parson’s Walk that led to officers visiting the area on Saturday as part of Operation Venture.

Officers in plain clothes were walking through Mesnes Park when they spotted a blue BMW driving slowly along Parson’s Walk.

A police spokesman said: “Recent intelligence suggested that people were using the location as a recruiting area for county lines drug dealing.”

The officers watched the men in the car and became suspicious when they started looking at a group of teenagers. Checks on the car showed it was registered to a woman in another area.

Police said one man left the car and went into a property. They detained the driver and spoke to the second man when he returned.

He was carrying an orange carrier bag, which was found to contain cash in bundles of £1,000, totalling around £50,000.

Police found four large laundry bags in the car, which contained around 15 vacuum-packed large bags with 15kg of dried cannabis, with a street value of £97,000.

Two men, aged 23 and 31, were arrested on suspicion of money laundering and possession with intent to supply cannabis.

They were among five people arrested, six stop-searches, four weapons seizures and four weapons sweeps carried out over the weekend as part of Operation Venture, with police targeting hot-spot areas in Wigan, Leigh, Trafford and Manchester city centre.