Illegal immigrants jailed for £240k cannabis farm

Two illegal immigrants found manning a cannabis farm worth up to £240,000 in a former restaurant have been jailed.

Northumbria Police found hundreds of plants at an industrial-sized grow in the former Riverside Lodge in Morpeth, Northumberland, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Albanian nationals Klodian Sulovari, 45, and Eldison Kalemi, 27, attempted to flee but were arrested on the roof.

Both admitted producing a Class B drug, an offence for which Kalemi had previously been jailed for four months for at Manchester Crown Court in 2022. Kalemi was jailed for two years and Sulovari for 20 months.

Both men were "illegal entrants" into the UK, prosecutor David Robinson-Young said.

Officers found 533 cannabis plants and 224 cuttings when they raided the former bar on High Stanners on 9 October with the drugs worth between £57,000 and £240,000, Mr Robinson-Young said.

He said it was a "well-established industrial-sized grow" and had clearly been previously cropped.

In mitigation, the court heard Sulovari wanted legitimate manual labour to earn money for his family but ended up working for criminals.

Kalemi was a plumber in Albania but lost his job to due to the country's economic situation, his barrister Liam O'Brien said.

He came to the UK to provide for his family, Mr O'Brien said, adding Kalemi thought he could find "lawful" employment in construction but "the only work he could find was the illegal work which he wrongly accepted".

Kalemi was now "desperate" to return to Albania to find law-abiding employment, the court heard.

Recorder Nathan Moxon said the men's efforts to escape over the roof in "such a risky manner" showed they knew they were engaged in illegal activity.

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