Three jailed over cannabis factory in former mill
(L-R) Ronaldo Pasha, Bledar Zeqo and Elvis Shira were jailed at Bradford Crown Court
- Published
Three men have been jailed for their involvement in a "sophisticated" cannabis factory capable of producing drugs worth up to £2.8m.
Ronaldo Pasha, Bledar Zeqo and Elvis Shira were all jailed for three years and nine months at Bradford Crown Court on Tuesday.
The trio, all of whom are Albanian nationals who entered the UK illegally, cultivated cannabis plants at a disused Halifax mill.
The defendants all admitted a charge of cannabis production and they will be automatically deported after serving their sentences.
The men were spotted by a police drone using ladders to scramble across a glass roof at the Carlton Works site before trying to run away down a fire escape.
The court was told police found 18 growing rooms, kitted out with extensive equipment and more than 5,000 cannabis plants at the site on Savile Park Road.
It was estimated that the plants could have produced more than 280kg of cannabis and the haul would have had a street value of between £2.4m and £2.8m.
The trio operated the cannabis factory in a disused mill on Savile Park Road in Halifax
Pasha, 24, had previously been jailed in 2022 for cannabis production, while his co-defendants, 33 year-old Shira and 40-year-old Zeqo, had no previous convictions.
The court heard that two of men said they were involved in the operation because of debts.
Sentencing the trio, Recorder Paul Reid said: "You all took part in an enterprise which was producing enormous amounts of cannabis.
“Inside this factory building there were 18 grow rooms containing an extremely sophisticated set-up designed for the production of cannabis on an industrial scale.”
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