Police have raided 13 addresses and made six arrests in an operation to break up illegal cannabis plantations.

Defence workers from the Special Interventions Service assisted with the raids on 12 premises in Enschede, including a house on the Burgemeester Jacobsstraat, and one in the nearby town of Delden, on Monday morning.

The six suspects are accused of cultivating hemp illegally and being members of a criminal organisation.

Around 180 police officers and staff took part in the operation, which police said may have caused excessive noise for people living in the neighbourhood.

A spokesman said the raids were part of a long-running investigation into cannabis plantations in the Enschede area. ‘It may be that today’s operation gives us new leads for other premises or locations that are of interest to us.’

Drug producers have been playing a cat-and-mouse game with police as they try to crack down on cannabis farms in the region on the German border. Last week the entire inventory of a drugs lab was found dumped in a recreational woodland outside Enschede, complete with jerrycans, cables, plants and compost.