Illegal immigrant tried to flee from Forest Fields cannabis farm

But an officer was at the back door to catch him

An illegal immigrant was caught tending to a cannabis grow in Nottingham which could have netted his bosses tens of thousands of pounds. Nottingham Crown Court heard how Eddison Kasa was trying to run out of the back door when officers raided the Forest Fields address where he was living.

The 24-year-old Albanian immediately admitted officers would find the class B drug growing around the property and 268 plants in total were discovered in five separate growing areas. And the warrant was part of a Nottinghamshire Police operation which saw four properties raided and a potential £1m of weed taken off the streets.

Jailing Kasa for 15 months Judge Michael Auty KC said: “Nottinghamshire, as well as other areas of the country, is plagued with cannabis grows at the moment. It is a very lucrative business with vast sums of money raised and immense suffering caused to innocent people.”

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Dominic Shelley, prosecuting, said officers carried out the warrant on the property in Premier Road, just before 11am on September 4. He said: “Officers knocked on the front door but one of the officers had the good sense to go to the back door where the defendant was trying to leave the property through the back door and came face-to-face with the officer.

“He walked the defendant back in who told them ‘there is some cannabis growing in there’ and five separate areas were identified in two rooms inside the house. There was a modest hydroponic set-up, the electricity had been by-passed and 269 plants were found in total.

“He was interviewed and told officers he was looking after the plants explaining he was paying off a debt of £85,000 his father had accrued in Albania.” Kasa, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to production of cannabis and has no previous convictions in the UK.

The raid was one of four police in Nottingham carried out between July and September acting on information the public passed on to them. The others were in Stanley Road, Forest Fields; Sturton Street, New Basford; and Gawthrone Street, also in New Basford.

A total of 1,124 plants were seized worth what detectives said was worth “around £1m”. Stuart Lody, mitigating, for Kasa, said: “He pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and I ask for full credit for that, please.

"He is paying a debt off which belongs to his father but I could not get any further details about it from him. He was the gardener in this operation."

Judge Auty said when the defendant is released halfway through his sentence he will “most likely be deported back to Albania”.