Pair found at cannabis farm in disused pub
A “SOPHISTICATED” cannabis farm was being operated in a disused pub near Swansea’s main police station, a court has heard.
The two men found working at the farm were both Albanian nationals who had been smuggled into the country, one having recently served 16 years in an Italian prison for being involved in the supply of heroin.
Swansea Crown Court heard police went to the boarded-up Mountain Dew public house in Mount Pleasant on the morning of May 6 after people living nearby reported suspicious activity around the building.
Paul Hobson, prosecuting, said when they entered the premises officers found 190 plants of various stages of maturity, along with associated growing equipment, spread over six rooms. The electricity supply to the disused pub had been bypassed.
Police also found two Albanian men in the inn – 28-year-old Elson Kryemadhi and 53-year-old Arben Matrapaei.
A third man found driving away from the pub by police when they arrived on the scene was arrested and remains under investigation. The court heard
the potential value of the crop was estimated to be at least £50,000.
The prosecutor said Kryemadhi subsequently told police he had arrived in the UK in December 2019 having paid £13,000
to people traffickers to get him into the country. He had then been offered work by the gang.
Mr Hobson said Matrapaei gave a “similar account” of how he came to be in Swansea.
Kryemadhi and Matrapaei, both of no fixed address, had previously pleaded guilty to producing cannabis when they appeared in the dock for sentencing.
Kryemadhi has no previous convictions, while Matrapaei has convictions for drug trafficking from Italy for which he was sentenced to 16 years. He was released from that sentence in 2015.
David Singh, for Kryemadhi, said the defendant had been candid with the police from the beginning of their investigation, telling them about the circumstances of his arrival in the country and the debt he had incurred to those who had trafficked
him. He said his client was “realistic” about his position, and understood a custodial sentence was inevitable.
Ashanti-jade Walton, for Matrapaei, said the defendant was ashamed to find himself back before the courts.
She said he had told her that he had come to the UK “to build a better life for himself” but had “quickly become involved with the wrong group of people”.
The barrister added: “He appreciates the need to sort himself out, otherwise he will be losing the rest of his 50s to custody”.
Judge Paul Thomas QC said the Mountain Dew pub had been “skillfully adapted” into a cannabis plantation with “sophisticated equipment”.
He told them: “It is a depressingly familiar story that I have heard many times from your fellow countrymen who have come before the courts for similar offences. You were offered work which you must have known was illegal, and you knew there would be consequences if you were caught.”
Giving the defendants a one-third discount for their guilty pleas he sentenced Kryemadh to 12 months in prison, and Matrapaei to two years. Each man will serve up to a half of those sentences in custody before being released on licence.