Trio jailed for cannabis farm in former Coventry nightclub

Adrian Lleshaj, Andi Cani and Cao Van Vu all admitted producing a class B drug at Warwick Crown Court

Three men have been jailed for running an industrial-scale cannabis farm in an abandoned nightclub in Coventry.

Andi Cani and Adrian Lleshaj attempted to hide in the roof of the former Bamboo nightclub as police entered and discovered their £1m operation.

They and accomplice Cao Van Vu admitted producing the drug and were given sentences of between 28 and 40 months at Warwick Crown Court on Tuesday.

The National Crime Agency said it was the largest factory it had ever found.

West Midlands Police worked with agency officers to raid the site on Trinity Street on 15 October.

The 1,500-plant haul was found over three floors at a former nightclub

They had to smash through several reinforced doors to get inside where they found about 1,500 cannabis plants spread across three floors.

Officers also recovered sophisticated planting, growing and irrigation equipment, valued at about £150,000, the NCA said.

The equipment was illegally connected to the commercial electricity supply from the street outside after the men bypassed the supply at the nightclub.

After their arrest, the men admitted to investigators they had paid people smugglers to enter the UK illegally, the NCA said.

Officers had to smash through several reinforced doors to get inside the former club, the NCA said

Albanian nationals Cani, 24, Lleshaj, 29, were sentenced to 28 months and 35 months respectively, while thirty-one-year-old Vietnamese national Vu received 40 months.

All three, all of no fixed address, will be deported after their sentences, the NCA said.

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Mick Pope, branch commander, said: "These men were involved in producing cannabis on an industrial scale. It is certainly the largest and most sophisticated cannabis factory ever found by the NCA.

"The takedown of this facility will have had a huge impact on the wider organised crime group, depriving them of potentially millions of pounds in profit, which would have been used to fund further criminality and exploitation."