An Albanian crime gang was using a Neath house as a base for its cannabis growing and distribution business, a court has heard. Four men were arrested at the property - one after fleeing through an upstairs window - and police seized more than £14,000 worth of the harvested drug along with a stash of passports.
Officers also recovered a number of mobile phones, and though the text messages contained on them were in Albanian the pictures, selfies and videos recovered were of interest. Jim Davis, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that on October 18 this year officers from South Wales Police's organised crime team went to a property on Payne Street in the Melin area of Neath looking for a suspect as part of an investigation into a non-drug matter.
Their knocks on the door were eventually answered by Elton Musta, and after they explained why they were there they entered the house. The court heard that as officers were going in through the front door a man was seen to climb out of a rear first-floor window and onto a flat roof before jumping to the floor and running off through gardens. The fleeing man - subsequently identified as Ledian Xhafa - was caught by officers stationed at the end of the street.
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The prosecutor said police recovered large bags of cannabis from the house with a street value of £14,250 as well as empty plastic snap-bags, £530 in cash, five mobile phones, and a number of passports in the names of Albanian nationals who are currently serving prison sentences for drugs offences. Outside the house was a Vauxhall Astra car which had been hired by Xhafa, and in the vehicle officers found bottles of liquid plant food and containers of fertiliser. There was no evidence that any plants had been grown at the Melin address.
Musta and Xhafa were taken to Swansea Central police station but the court heard it was clear from the house that more than two people had been living there, so a number of officers remained in the property. Later that day Renato Shyti and Lorenc Cobo arrived at the house and were arrested. Shyti was found to be carrying two mobile phones and £330 in cash.
The court heard all the seized phones were examined and found to contain photos and videos of a number of the defendants posing with sums of money and cannabis plants, as well as messages written in Albanian which have not been translated into English. One of the phones also contained images of receipts and costings for the purchase of equipment related to the growing of cannabis which ran to several thousand pounds - however it is not known what happened to those items.
Elton Musta, aged 29, Ledian Xhafa, aged 35, and 37-year-old Lorenc Cobo, all of Payne Street, Melin, Neath, and Renato Shyti, aged 23, of West Street, St Phillips, Bristol, had previously pleased guilty to possession of cannabis with intent to supply when they appeared in the dock for sentencing. None of them have any previous convictions in the UK. The court heard all the defendants are Albanians and are in the UK illegally.
Alycia Carpanini, for Shyti, said the defendant came to the UK in order to pay off debts, and accepted he should have stopped what he was doing when he realised the activities were illegal. She said Shyti was sorry for the shame he had brought to his family, and upon his release from the custodial sentence he was facing he wants to go back to Albania and does not intend to return to the UK
Andrew Evans, for Musta, said his client's account of how he came to the in the UK was one that would be familiar to the court. He said the defendant entered the country illegally "with the assistance of others" and with the promise of work. The advocate said Musta had been taken to various locations in the UK before finding himself in the Neath property.
Georgia Donoghue, for Xhafa, said her client entered the UK three years ago after being told legal work would be available to him, and had found cash-in-hand work on building sites. She said Xhafa had been at the Neath house for around a month before being arrested, and accepted he had stayed at the property once he realised the nature of the work.
Clive Rees, for Cobo, said the defendant was from the city of Berat in Albania and had been a "respectable man" and a skilled panel beater and sprayer. He said his client had wanted to use those skills in the UK and could properly be considered an economic migrant.
With a one-quarter discount for their guilty pleas judge Christopher Vosper KC sentenced each defendant to 36 weeks in prison. They will serve up to half those sentences in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. Sending the defendants down, the judge said it was not inevitable but a possibility that they would be deported following their sentences but that was not a matter for the court.
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