Eleven men linked to a Nottingham organised crime group that mainly worked from Clifton appeared at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday 9 October 2026.[1][2] Ten of them were jailed for more than 60 years after an East Midlands Special Operations Unit investigation.[1][2]

Mitchell Edge, 24, of Edwalton, led the group.[1][2] Police say it used thermal-imaging drones, hidden cameras and vehicle trackers to find and burgle rival cannabis farms in Nottingham districts and as far as Reading, Bedford, Doncaster and Leicester, sometimes armed with machetes, knives and baseball bats.[1]

The same network ran three of its own grows: 1,768 plants in Colwick valued at almost £1.5 million wholesale, 315 plants in Clifton valued at up to £264,000, and 233 plants in Luton valued at up to £195,572.[1][2] Evidence suggested the sites may have operated for about a year.[1]

Edge pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle, supply and produce cannabis and received 11 years and three months.[1][2] Brad-leigh Cairns received nine years; Cory Rhodes eight years and eight months; other prison terms ranged from three years six months to five years four months.[1][2] Benjamin Slodczyk received 18 months suspended for two years for conspiracy to produce cannabis.[1][2]