Trio at cannabis farm said they were just ‘watering the plants’
Plants carried potential yield of up to £336,000 in ‘street value’
THREE men found inside a derelict pub containing a cannabis farm with 343 plants have said they were only there to water plants or set up equipment.
Erjoni Ramaj, 24, of no fixed address; Tafil Ramaj, 24, of Balcombe Road, Horley, Surrey; and Alensio Rucaj, 20, of High Street, Kettering, Northamptonshire, were discovered hiding in the loft at the former Tricorn pub in Palacefields, Runcorn, on Saturday, January 9.
Police received reports from a member of the public who had seen two or three men who were carrying tools opening the back gate.
Gerald Baxter, prosecuting at a trial of issue hearing at Chester Crown Court on Friday, said officers heard “movement” inside the pub.
Upon entering, they discovered 340 “flowering head cannabis plants” and growing equipment spread across three rooms of the vacant pub, with signs of work under way to convert two remaining rooms.
He said the plants were about one metre in height and carried a potential yield of between 9.5kg and 28.5kg, worth between £38,000 and £200,000 in wholesale terms, or from £112,000 to £336,000 in “street value”.
Mr Baxter described the fittings as “sophisticated electrical equipment including high-powered fluorescent lamps, reflective heat shields, wellmaintained circuit boards and so on”.
A car belonging to Tafil Ramaj was found by Cheshire Police officers nearby.
The defendants later claimed they had limited knowledge of the building and what they were being asked to do.
Since their arrests, they have pleaded guilty to being concerned in the production of the Class B drug cannabis but denied significant involvement, leading to the trial of issue hearing to decide the matter.
When interviewed, Erjoni Ramaj said he and his cousin Tafil had come to England a year earlier and moved to London.
He said they met a man two days earlier who “asked them to clean a hotel for a large amount of money”.
“They were given keys to enter the building, and said they were only in the building for 20 minutes when the police arrived.”
Tafil Ramaj gave mainly no comment answers but added he “hadn’t been to that address before and had only been there for five minutes when the police arrived”.
Rucaj said he had been to a coffee shop in London that morning and was “offered a job near Manchester cleaning the outside of a property”.
Mr Baxter said Tafil Ramaj’s basis of plea that he was asked to water plants was “not credible” because “it suggests all the defendants went all the way from London merely to water the plants”.
He added that in Rucaj’s basis, the defendant said he was “assisting in the work to set up zone four”, but was “not aware that it involved a cannabis grow when he arrived at the property but he still agreed to lend his labour”.
Mr Baxter summarised the prosecution’s case: “The Crown doesn’t accept that the defendants travelled all the way from London to Runcorn in order to water cannabis plants – that’s certainly what Erjoni Ramaj and Tafil Ramaj say, or to carry out a day’s manual labour as Rucaj says.
“The Crown doesn’t accept that they had not done any work previously on that cannabis farm.”
He added: “The Crown would say these defendants were involved in setting up and maintaining” the cannabis farm.
Tafil Ramaj gave evidence in the dock, answering questions from his defence counsel Simon Christie.
Tafil Ramaj said he was from Albania and entered the country illegally about 18 months ago after paying someone called “Tony” £10,000 to help him enter the UK.
After initially working in painting, decorating and construction, he borrowed money to buy a car.
Speaking via an interpreter about January 9, he said: “I met Tony before but the car was somewhere else that I don’t remember the name.
“The agreement was with Tony that I would go and water some cannabis plants.”
He added that Tony was at the property and “he showed us round and told us what to do”, then went away to buy equipment and provisions.
Tafil Ramaj said they were in the building for five minutes eating when the police arrived and he hid in the loft because he was “scared”.
Michael Scholes, representing Erjoni Ramaj, asked Tafil Ramaj some questions about them meeting “Tony” in the area and if they had to “force your way into the premises”.
Tafil Ramaj said: “The door, according to Tony’s explanation, was screwed in. I was told to use the drill to unscrew them and open the entrance.”
Under cross-examination from Mr Baxter, Tafil Ramaj said the sound of him “running upstairs” into the loft might have been the sound that police heard inside.
Mr Baxter also asked him about a drill used to enter the property but the defendant said he did not know what was inside the bag he was carrying, prompting the prosecutor to reply: “I thought you said you used the drill to open the door?”
Tafil Ramaj replied: “Yes, I had the drill but there were two or three other boxes.”
The case, which began on Friday, was adjourned to finish on October 8.
Rucaj, who appeared via videolink, initially pleaded not guilty to cannabis production but admitted the charge on June 18.
The Ramaj cousins, who were produced from custody to appear in the dock, pleaded guilty on July 2.