CANNABIS farms growing plants worth up to £500,000 have been found during police raids on two houses.

Officers were acting on intelligence that cannabis was being grown at a terraced house in Sapling Road, Morris Green.

Rooms full of plants and electrical equipment were found when police got into the home through an unlocked back door.

The landlord of the house has been arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the production of cannabis.

Officers have now visited other properties he owns and have discovered more cannabis plants.

There were about 220 plants in the front bedroom, about 100 in the bathroom and cropped plants in the second bedroom.

The landlord’s Vauxhall Corsa was seized from outside the house.

One resident spoke of her surprise at seeing the police. She said: “This is a nice street and nothing ever happens here.”

In the second raid, a man refused to let police into a house in Willows Lane, Deane.

He then tried to escape by jumping out of an upstairs bathroom window.

The man was taken to hospital with a suspected broken ankle and was arrested on suspicion of cultivating cannabis.

At the Willows Lane house there were 150 plants in the attic, 30 in an upstairs storage room, 120 in an incubator and 120 large plants in the front bedroom.

The size of the plants from both farms varied from seedlings to fully mature speciments and the value, if they were all fully grown and harvested, could be up to £500,000.

Insp Chris Evans, of Bolton West Neighbourhood Policing Team, added: “We will take positive action regarding any information that we receive about drug use.

“Drugs wreck society and damage neighbourhoods. We encourage local communities to give us any information about illegal supplying, producing or using of drugs.

“Drug use leads to people committing crime to fund their habits and cannabis is just one part of a bigger chain.”