‘Exploitable’ immigrants found hiding in Harehills home with sophisticated £74,000 cannabis farm

Armed with a warrant, the officers smashed their way into the property on Nowell Grove in Harehills on September 4. They found Festim Sefa and Mirban Xhukellari upstairs and 109 plants across five rooms.

Leeds Crown Court heard there was also 27 “stripped” plants that had been recently harvested, prosecutor Jessica Lister said. She said there was a “sophisticated set-up” with fans, lights, transformers, filtration systems, wall coverings and vacuum pack bags for harvested drugs to be stored and transported.

There was also a living area with beds and places to store personal belongings. Keys to the property were also found suggesting neither man was being held against their will.

Experts put the valuation of the drugs up to £42,000 wholesale, and more than £74,000 on the streets. Three phones were found between the two defendants but they both refused to hand over the PIN and police had been unable to get into the devices.

Both 23-year-old Sefa and 28-year-old Xhukellari admitted charges of producing cannabis. Mitigating for both, Gary Cook said they had both been trafficked to the country having paid money to gangs, and like many illegal immigrants, were put to work illegally.

He said: “Those who traffic them paint an expansive picture of Britain, but when they get here they can only work illegally. They are beholden to those who traffic them. They are exploitable.”

Judge Mushtaq Khokhar said there was no suggestion they had been put to work through “coercion or duress”. He jailed them for 28 months each.