Albanian migrant smuggled to UK jailed over £63,000 cannabis farm

An Albanian migrant who was smuggled into the UK on a dinghy has been jailed after being found tending to a cannabis farm worth £63,000.

Arbi Koldashi, 41, was caught cultivating the farm in South Kirkby, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, to pay off a £10,000 debt to the smugglers who helped bring him to the country.

Police raided the house and found Koldashi tending to more than 140 plants, Leeds Crown Court was told.

Prosecutor Jennifer Gatland said officers went to the house on Saxon Mount shortly before 9am on July 31 armed with a search warrant.

Koldashi answered the door and was the sole occupant. Officers found four grow rooms containing a set up of lights, fans and transformers.

There were 60 mature plants and 85 saplings and the electricity had been bypassed to prevent detection about the amount of energy being used to grow the plants.

Experts predicted the farm was capable of producing around 6.3kg of the drug, with a street value of £63,000, the court heard.

Koldashi was interviewed by police and said he had been at the property for a month and was tasked with watering the plants.

He said he was put to work to pay off the debt he owed the traffickers who brought him across the sea on a dinghy two years ago.

Koldashi, who has no previous convictions, was jailed for 20 months after he admitted a charge of the production of cannabis.

Mitigating, Eddison Flint said Koldashi had been 'full and frank' with police and said there had been a 'degree of pressure' to work at the drugs factory.

He said the Home Office had already been in touch with Koldashi, who was on remand at HMP Leeds, to say he will be deported once he is released.

Mr Flint said: 'He wants to go home and live a crime-free life.'