Trio behind production of 200kg of cannabis have now been jailed
THE TRIO behind the production and sale of more than 200kg of cannabis have been jailed including a man from Tamworth.
Banirjan Hoxha, Lee McCarthy and Jamie Loxley were part of a group that set up ‘professional cannabis grows’ in Burton-upon-Trent and various locations in the north west of England.
They supplied wholesale quantities of the class B drug to dealers between July 2018 and June 2022. Throughout an 18-month covert operation, police gathered intelligence on the three men, who were seen visiting their production sites and meeting with ‘gardeners’ housed at the locations to look after the crop.
In June 2020, Staffordshire Police raided a cannabis factory controlled by Hoxha in Eton Road, Burton-upon-Trent. Inside, officers found 70 cannabis plants in the loft with a street value of around £38,500.
This followed an earlier seizure of
Banirjan Hoxha, Lee McCarthy and Jamie Loxley were part of a group that set up ‘professional cannabis grows’ in Burton-upon-Trent and various locations in the north west of England. 227 cannabis plants from the boot of a van linked to the men. People known to be involved in drug supply were also seen visiting McCarthy’s home address in Tamworth, which acted as the ‘distribution hub’ for the operation.
In June 2022, warrants were executed at the homes of Hoxha, McCarthy and Loxley. At Hoxha’s address, in Derbyshire, officers found a box containing £88,910 in cash wrapped in bundles in a hollowed-out marble table in the living room.
Police found a substantial quantity of cannabis in two five-litre boxes hidden under a staircase at McCarthy’s Tamworth property, along with several sets of digital scales, vacuum sealed bags with cannabis strain flavours written on them and blocks of cannabis resin.
Nearly £100,000 in cash, a motorbike and Rolex watch also recovered as part of the investigation will be subject to a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing on June 21.
All three men were found guilty of conspiring to supply a class B controlled drug following a trial. They were sentenced at Stafford Crown Court.
Hoxha, 41, from Springfield Road, Swadlincote, was jailed for five years and four months; McCarthy, 36, from Ebrook Road, Sutton Coldfield, was handed four years and four months and Loxley, 36, from Barnbridge, Kettlebrook, Tamworth will spend two years behind bars.
Detective Inspector Timothy Boulton, from the force’s major and organised crime unit, said: “This case serves as a warning to anyone involved in the supply of drugs in
Staffordshire that we will take all of the necessary steps to ensure those responsible for this criminality are stopped and dealt with.
“This is another great result as we continue to proactively target cannabis grows and serious organised crime across the whole of the county.
“It should also serve as a reminder to the public that the drug’s cultivation is often linked to sophisticated criminal networks where there are high levels of serious and dangerous criminality.”