The Proceeds of Crime Act of 2002, known to British police as POCA, enables police forces in Britain to confiscate assets bought with illegal profits—such as houses or cars—and keep up to half of the money for themselves. In court, proving that assets were ill-gotten is difficult. But for drug seizures, forces can take the street value of their haul from a dealer's other assets, to deter future misdeeds.
Many police forces now have specialist teams dedicated to POCA recoveries. Over the past six years (as of 2025) police forces have recovered around £300m a year from criminals through the act. The money goes back into fighting crime or funds community projects.
When police bust a cannabis farm, they often seize plants that have not yet fully matured. Wet, immature plants weigh more and lack concentrated THC. Dealers with good lawyers were able to argue successfully against confiscation orders, claiming that plants were "mouldy" or that the yield had been estimated inaccurately. To counter this, Essex Police began nurturing and drying seized cannabis plants in a "bespoke facility", with a team of six officers learning to harvest the crop as effectively as the dealers would have. The team handles around 1,000 busts a year. Several other large forces are reported to have followed suit, with one using a converted shipping container.
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