Behind the doors of suburban properties in Oxford lurks a sinister trade — the mass cultivation of drugs.

Police last night said they had scored a major victory in the battle against the farming of cannabis by busting a ring involving Vietnamese crime gangs, who were renting houses and using them to grow plants in large quantities.

These drugs were destined for the streets and into the hands of goodness knows who.

Of course, a reduction in the number of drugs farms raided by the police doesn’t necessarily mean a reduction in the number of them around the city.

But it is good news officers have acted on information passed to them by the public and taken a great deal of cannabis off the streets.

Drugs, of any kind, are a scourge on society and anything the police do to combat this modern-day evil is to be applauded.