Men behind huge cannabis factory in Shrewsbury house are jailed

Albanian duo Besim Tafa and Ardit Mehalla were arrested after police raided a property in Mostyn Road in the town on February 14.

Shrewsbury Crown Court was told on Monday that Tafa, 45, had been living at the house for a week, watering and looking after the 273 plants which were seized.

Mehalla, 19, had been the driver of a van which was delivering supplies there.

The court heard the two men, who were in the country illegally and are of no fixed address, had paid significant amounts of money to be brought to the country and were working to pay off the debt.

Prosecuting, Howard Searle said: "Police executed a warrant at Mostyn Road in Shrewsbury at about 9.30 in the morning. Just prior to that, the two defendants ran off from the house. "The house is a three-bedroom semi-detached house. When police gained access they discovered all bar one room being used to grow cannabis."

"The police found Mehalla. He had been seen running away from the premises and he was arrested a short time and a short distance away.

"When he was arrested, police found £950 and his Albanian ID card on him and the key to the van they later searched.

"Tafa was arrested about two hours later.

"All bar one room was being used, or was to be used, to grow cannabis. In five rooms, plants were growing.

"There were 273 plants, just over half had reached maturity and ready for harvesting. The sixth room was in the process of being converted. The house had been turned into an area for cannabis to be grown commercially.

"The van contained all the types of products used in the system itself."

The two men both admitted a charge of producing a controlled drug of class B.

Andrew Holland, mitigating for Tafa, said: "He was taken to the property and he was under the belief he was going to be doing building work, not gardening."

"He had no involvement setting up the house. He does accept he watered and looked after the plants.

"He has a wife and two children back home."

Debra White, for Mehalla, said he had paid £7,500 to get to this country and the £950 he was paid would have been used to help pay off the debt.

Judge Jim Tindal, sentencing Tafa to 20 months and Mehalla to 12 months, warned both men they would be deported once they had served their sentences.He said: "Each of you has a different story about why you came to be here.

"Mehalla, you understood that you were working in the role you were working in to pay off that debt. "But it is also fair to say that you were paid for the role you undertook.

"Whilst it is apparent in the sentencing guidelines you fall in the lesser role this was not for example a case where you were being coerced or that you were exploited.

"This is a case where you did a deal with the people that brought you here to pay off that debt.

"Tafa, you have been in the country a much shorter period of time but then you had more involvement in this operation.

"Yes, it was for a week but you were running the farm for that week."

He also ordered the destruction of the drugs and paraphernalia and the forfeiture of the cash.