A former professional footballer was caught working as a gardener in a cannabis farm after being smuggled into the UK. When police raided the house in a residential street in Swansea they found the entire property had been given over to producing the drug with the crop being tended by Albanian national Elsion Koka. The potential value of the drugs once harvested was put at around £125,000.
Swansea Crown Court heard Koka had paid a criminal gang a "significant" amount of money to get him into the UK – with part of the journey being undertaken in the boot of a vehicle – and had been expecting to be found work in the construction industry on his arrival. Craig Jones, prosecuting, said on September 5 last year police in Swansea executed a search warrant at a house in Stanley Terrace in the Mount Pleasant area. He said officers forced entry to the property and found two downstairs rooms and four upstairs rooms had been converted to grow cannabis while the electricity meter had been bypassed.
In total police found 289 plants of varying levels of maturity and a force drugs expert estimated the potential yield of the plants could be as much as 24kg with a street value of up to £125,000. Also in the house was the defendant Koka. He was arrested and interviewed and answered "no comment" to all questions asked.
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The 26-year-old, of Stanley Terrace, Mount Pleasant, Swansea, admitted producing cannabis. He has no previous convictions. Hywel Davies, mitigating, said the defendant had come to the UK to earn money to send home to his family in Albania. He said there had been an element of coercion and pressure applied to Koka but he had then "foolishly and wrongly" seen the offending as a way of raising funds for his mother and sister – a decision he is now remorseful for. The barrister said in a far cry from the position he now finds himself in his client had been a professional footballer for a period and was a highly educated man with a Master's degree in sports science. He said given Koka's immigration status it was accepted a sentence of immediate custody was inevitable and that after his release he wants to "return or be returned" to Albania where he hopes to become a personal trainer.
Judge Huw Rees said according to the defendant's basis of plea it seemed he had paid "a significant amount of money" to a gang which brought him to the UK on the understanding he would be found work in the construction industry but had instead been taken to the house in Swansea. The judge said the defendant had come to the UK for economic reasons and he noted his activities in the UK were "inconsistent with his previous good character".
With a one-quarter discount for his guilty plea Koka was sentenced to 16 months in prison. He will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence. The judge said any future deportation back to Albania was a matter for the Home Office and he noted inquiries were being made under the National Referral Mechanism as to whether the defendant was a victim of human trafficking.
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