£800,000 Gateshead cannabis farm busted after police found live stream of it on mastermind's phone
by Rob Kennedy · ChronicleLiveA huge cannabis farm worth more than £800,000 was busted when police found a live stream of it on its "mastermind's" phone.
Almost 2,000 plants growing in an industrial unit in Dunston, Gateshead, were spotted on Edison Sulanjaku's phone when police spotted him engaged in a suspicious exchange in Newcastle. That led to the discovery of the industrial-scale drugs factory and also a large amount of cultivated cannabis at a house in Sunderland.
Sulanjaku and two other men from Albania were sentenced last year and now Xhestjan Llaposhi, who was spotted tending to the plants on the footage, has been locked up for his part in the offending.
Newcastle Crown Court heard it was on August 28 2022 that two plain clothes police officers saw an exchange between three men in a car and two men who approached it, one of whom handed over cash and received a small white package in return before going back into a pizza shop.
Officers followed the car but lost it and then returned to the pizza shop and arrested the two men. On the phone of one of them - Sulanjaku - police found CCTV showing a live feed of a large cannabis farm in an industrial unit in Dunston, with two men tending the plants - Llaposhi and Besnik Cela.
Police raided the unit and found 1,950 cannabis plants at various stages of growth. They were worth up to £805,000, the court heard.
WhatsApp messages on Sulanjaku's phone then led them to an address in Lincoln Street, Sunderland, where Xhenifer Muca answered the door. He said he was Albanian and was in the country illegally and he was arrested.
Police found between 16 and 17 kilos of cannabis at the property in vacuum sealed bags, worth up to £65,000. Paperwork linked to Llaposhi was also found there.
Sulanjaku, described as the "mastermind" of the operation, Cela and Muca were dealt with previously for producing cannabis and Sulanjaku was also sentenced for possessing cannabis with intent to supply and Muca for being concerned in the supply of cannabis.
Sulanjaku, 27, of North Station Avenue, Houghton-le-Spring, was jailed for four-and-a-half years, Muca, 23, of no fixed address, got 18 months and Cela, 15 of no fixed address, got 16 months. Now Llaposhi, who admitted producing cannabis, has been jailed for 15 months.
Richard Herrmann, defending Llaposhi, said: "He has spent a considerable time in custody on remand in an alien environment where he is a young man with very limited English. He came to the UK illegally with hopes of finding a better life when he was very young and immature, about three years ago.
"What he found was far from a better life. He became trapped in debts to the organised crime group who made arrangements for his illegal entry to the UK.
"He is desperate to return to Albania as soon as he possibly can. There's a lot of promise about this young man and he has expressed remorse and regret."
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