Property developer who made £320,000 from drugs to pay back just £52,000
APROPERTY developer who made more than £320,000 from an illegal drug operation will have to pay back less than a sixth of his ill-gotten gains.
Matthew Cleary and his accomplice Mikel Kujtila were involved in cannabis factories in and around Cardiff in a conspiracy thought to have involved more than 100kg of the Class B drug.
Cardiff Crown Court heard Cleary, 35, was living in a “high-spec” home containing large flat-screen TVs in most rooms and had luxury watches worth as much as £40,000.
He enjoyed golfing at the Algarve’s exclusive Monte Rei club and had amassed a collection of high-value clothing and trainers. But his wealth was not just the fruit of property work which, he later admitted, only earned him around £35,000 a year.
Police discovered Cleary’s involvement in a drug ring and in December 2022 he was handed a 32-month jail term for the conspiracy to supply cannabis.
In a proceeds of crime hearing this week the prosecutor Roger Griffiths said Cleary had benefited to the tune of £323,962 from his crime but that the recoverable amount was only £52,174.
Judge Richard Kember ordered Cleary to pay £52,174.
“You have three months to pay,” he said. “If you do not pay within three months and do not apply for an extension you are at risk of going to prison for one year.”
As Cleary left court, our reporter attempted to question him about his case but he sprinted away.
The sentencing hearing in December 2022 was told police investigating the drug ring had attended Copleston Road, Llandaff North, in June that year and had seen 33-year-old Kujtila through the kitchen window of what turned out to be one of his cannabis farms. The Albanian national initially “froze” but when officers said they could see him through the window he let them in and they discovered a “significant” amount of cultivation equipment in the living area, said prosecutor Tom Stanway.
Kujtila had keys for a VW Caddy, a BMW 3 Series and a Mercedes van. Inside the vehicles officers found more than 17kg of cannabis in vacuum-packed bags and Albanian passports for “gardeners” at drug grows in the area.
Mr Stanway said there was “highlevel clothing” in Kujtila’s property as well as documentation on the installation of a swimming pool.
Police examined Kujtila’s phones and linked the messages to Cleary who was stopped by officers while driving a Range Rover in Mynachdy Road. Inside the vehicle were packages containing around a kilogram of cannabis resin. Its street value was estimated at £1,000 but the court heard it may have been a high-quality Moroccan strain which would have been worth as much as £6,000.
Officers searched Cleary’s house and found smaller amounts of cannabis in bags.
Mr Stanway said: “The home had a high-spec finish and was lavishly decorated with a digital media system installed in the bathroom and a large flat-screen TV in almost every room.”
Police seized Tag Heuer and Audemars Piguet watches from the home as well as three pairs of Valentino trainers. They discovered texts Cleary had exchanged with Kujtila discussing deals of various cannabis strains with contacts across the UK. In total the messages referred to deals involving some 90kg of the drug.
Kujtila mentioned finding a warehouse in London where there was “significant profit to be had”, the prosecutor told the court.
The evidence led officers to eight cannabis factories in and near Cardiff including at Aberystwyth Street, Cathays Terrace, Llantrisant Road, Cowbridge Road East and Rolls Street. One of the farms was at a Pontypridd High Street building with six growing rooms. Hundreds of cannabis plants were found across the sites and a total of around 40kg of the drug was seized during the investigation, said Mr Stanway.
One of Kujtila’s texts read: “The boss has people with guns at night.”
The prosecutor argued this suggested he was “part of an OCG (organised crime group) with access to firearms” but Judge David Wynn Morgan said he did not accept this, adding: “There is no evidence of anything like shootouts in the street.”
Cleary, who had no previous convictions, initially claimed he had been at a friend’s lockup and picked up a box which he did not know contained drugs but he later pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to supply cannabis. He said he got to know Kujtila because they used to live across the road from each other. Kujtila also admitted the conspiracy.
Judge Morgan said the pair’s role in the operation was “significant” rather than “leading”.
He added: “The two men in the dock are not all the people who ought to be in the dock. Those sophisticated criminals who organise these cannabis factories very rarely appear in the dock. They take steps to make sure others take the risks of inevitable custodial sentences that follow from this activity. In this case we have someone who came to this country under the auspices of wicked people and found himself obliged to work for them. On the other hand we have an individual who became addicted to cannabis and found a way to obtain more cannabis and benefit from the sale of cannabis.”
The judge said the illegal trade of cannabis is a “scourge that creates degradation and misery”.
He sentenced Cleary and Kujtila to 32 months in prison each.