Pair are jailed for roles at drugs factory
TWO more members of a cannabis growing gang who transformed a former student house in Exeter into a huge skunkgrowing factory have been jailed.
Five men were arrested after police raided the large 10-bedroom property in Barnfield Hill in November last year.
Inside, officers found a sophisticated array of ducting, lights and cultivation items. Every room of the house was devoted to growing cannabis.
When engineers from Western Power came to investigate, they said they had never seen such a sophisticated effort to avoid a meter reading. The men had even dug up the driveway to connect electricity cables to the main street supply.
In total, there were 501 plants all ready to be harvested. The street value of the 48kg was just short of £500,000. The wholesale value was about £240,000.
Three members of the Albanian gang were sentenced at Exeter
Crown Court a week ago for their part in the operation. The remaining two defendants, Sajmir Mata, 41, and Zurafet Lika, 26, have now been jailed. Both were put away for two years and three months.
The court heard how the gang had been under surveillance when officers raided the house.
Police have released images of what they found inside. They reveal a set-up designed to provide a yield of around £3m a year as a recurring grow. The cost of equipment used was put at between £16,000 and £27,000. Pesticides, soil and plant food were valued at up to £5,000.
The Serious and Organised Crime Team carried out detailed work on phones seized from each of the men, which uncovered the scale of the operation. The property had been in use since the summer, said prosecutor Simon Burns.
Mata, who was in the country illegally, was the principal gardener. Messages showed he knew about the life cycle of the plants and when and how to treat them.
He had a family back in Albania and had come to the UK in a lorry. He was tempted to get involved by the promise of making money.
Lika, who was legally in the UK, had wanted to do legitimate work but naively got involved to pay off debts, said Tom Bradnock, defending. Neither of the men were directing operations but each had important roles.
Judge Timothy Rose said: “Both of you in different ways had involvement in a very, very substantial cannabis grow on a large scale and you were aware of the scale of it. Mata, you were looking after it and being the principal gardener with great expertise.”
He said Lika’s role had been as a “go-between” with those higher up the chain and travelling from London. He added that both men knew what they were getting involved in.
DC Tracey Stafford, investigating officer, said: “The arrests, charges and subsequent convictions of these individuals by the Serious and Organised Crime Team is the result of an investigation into one of the biggest commercial productions of cannabis in Devon and Cornwall.
“The sheer scale of the production shows what can happen in our force area and goes to show that any class of drug will not be tolerated in Devon and Cornwall. We have relied on the public’s assistance, information intelligence and the dedication and tireless work of our team in this investigation. We are committed to taking positive action.”
Osman Hakorja, 31, from London, was previously sentenced to three and a half years; Geraldo Mali, 25, from Exeter, was sentenced to 10 months; and Mohamed Troci, 27, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to 16 months.