Six jailed for multi-million pound drugs operation
ABRISTOL-BASED gang used motor insurance fraud to run a multi-million-pound cannabis operation.
Six men involved in the scheme, which had drug factories in the Easton area of the city and Merseyside, have been jailed for a combined 18 years and eight months.
They used an industrial unit in Birkenhead to grow cannabis with a street value of up to £1.9 million each harvest.
The men who pleaded admitted conspiracy to produce the Class B substance were: Mario Fioruci, 37, of no fixed abode, jailed for four and a half years; Alessandro Carbone, 46, of Glen Park in Eastville, jailed for four years; Luca Fioravanti, 37, of High Street in Kingswood, jailed for three and a half years; Edi Daka, 46, of Dudley Court in Barrs Court, jailed for three years; Arjan Dishmima, 42, of no fixed abode, jailed for 22 months; Eno Suma, 35, of Bishopsworth Road in Bedminster Down, jailed for 22 months.
Four of the men – Fioruci, Daka, Dishmima and Suma – were arrested as they headed back to Bristol after visiting the cannabis site in October 2019.
They travelled in convoy in two Mercedes Sprinter vans which, when stopped by officers, were found to be loaded with 30 large bags of soil and cannabis plant waste, as well as a large bag of cannabis.
Police then searched the industrial unit at Birkenhead’s Craven Industrial Park and discovered an “extensive setup”, says the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit.
Spread over three floors, they found 610 plants, six growing tents, a large drying room, and a by-passed electricity meter to supply the high wattage heat.
Light systems, air extraction and ventilation were used to control the “aggressive growing cycle that would ensure numerous crops throughout
every ticket the year”, the crime unit added.
Fioravanti and Carbone were arrested a fortnight later in Brislington, where police seized £19,000 in cash from a bedroom and a further £50,000 worth of cannabis in a car boot.
“Following their arrests, the investigation led to a further cannabis grow being located within a house in Easton,” the crime unit said.
“The grow was partially dismantled, but again the electricity meter had been by-passed and substantial damage had been caused to the house.”
The Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) became involved in the case following suspicions the gang was fraudulently using motor trade insurance to support large-scale cannabis production.
“IFB experts worked swiftly to uncover evidence of how members of the crime group had used motor trade policies to insure ten vehicles,” said an IFB spokesman.
This helped the men distance their identities from the vehicles being used and evade number plate detection for no insurance.
The defendants were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court last month.
Fioravanti had pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cannabis, as well as the conspiracy to produce cannabis.