Peter Bleksley has declared that the "war on drugs" in Britain one that "simply cannot and will not ever be won" after an exclusive exposé by GB News on gang-run cannabis farms.
Speaking to GB News, the former Scotland Yard detective reacted to the "shocking" footage of gangs advertising on social media for a "one-stop shop" to construct the illegal grows.
The People's Channel has exclusively obtained the footage, showing the criminal gangs posing as legitimate construction teams, arriving with vans full of cannabis seedlings as well as hydroponic kits and heat lamps.
Within hours of arriving at residential addresses across Britain, the squads can convert whole rooms into cannabis nurseries.
The gangs rewire the electrics within a property, to power the many heat lamps and irrigation system needed to assist the growing process.
They also insulate the property, lining the rooms with silver screed to keep the heat in and help prevent police helicopters and drones from detecting the tell-tale heat loss through the roofs of buildings used to grow cannabis.
Reacting to the footage, Mr Bleksley stressed that the operation shows how these criminals gangs are "always one step ahead" of law enforcement.
He told GB News: "It is shocking, and I'm afraid it's just yet another example, of which there are many, that drug dealers, cultivators, suppliers would always change their tactics, innovate, be one step ahead of law enforcement.
"And that, of course, means that the war on drugs, unfortunately, is a war that simply cannot and will not ever be won."
Mr Bleksley made clear that if anyone is allowing these gangs to operate in their homes, it is a "serious criminal offence".
He explained: "Anybody who allows one of these gangs into their home to convert it into a cannabis factory are committing a serious criminal offence, which will have very serious repercussions should they be captured.
"When we look at the illegal drugs industry on a global scale, because it is a global industry, it's now the fourth biggest industry in the world, and it shows that, of course, this is a supply and demand business.
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"The demand for illegal drugs will not go away because millions of people in the UK alone will take drugs, and therefore the supply has to keep increasing."
The ex-detective recalled being on the front line of the war on drugs 40 years ago, where he and his team were attacked by the criminals and he was stabbed.
He said: "Forty years ago I was in the very front line of the war on drugs. There was a Scotland Yard central drug squad detective.
"I was stabbed in the neck, a colleague of mine was shot through the heart, another one had ammonia squirted in his face.
"And yet we'd come back for more because we thought we were on the side of the angels, and we thought we were going to win this war.
"But of course, all these decades later, it just goes to show that sadly, we were fighting a losing battle."
Mr Bleksley warned that "as long as there is demand", the criminals will "always change their tactics" to avert law enforcement.
He said: "And as long as there is the demand, which is vast, criminals will change their tactics. They will get the supply to customers one way or another.
"And just like people who smuggle people on dinghies, they'll change their tactics, they'll innovate, they'll be one step ahead of law enforcement. And with things as they are at the moment, I can see no end to this whatsoever."
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