Four Albanian men have admitted being the “gardeners” behind a £400,000 cannabis farm set up within a disused hotel in Aboyne.
The huge drug cultivation operation was discovered within the abandoned Huntly Arms Hotel when an architect turned up there to do work earlier this year.
He found the locks changed and once inside followed a trail of cables from the old reception down to the basement, where 520 cannabis plants were growing under dozens of lights.
The old ballroom, meanwhile, played host to boxes upon boxes of soil stacked on top of each other.
Four illegal immigrants from Albania were found by police that same morning staying in one room of the 50-bedroom hotel.
Fabio Marku, 28, Arjel Leshi, 24, Gelvis Xhepa, 26, and Donald Xhepa, 29, have been remanded at HMP Grampian since the drug discovery on January 16 this year.
Huge operation set up in just weeks
The men each pled guilty to a single charge of being concerned in the supply of drugs when they appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
The court heard how the part-owner of the hotel had last visited the disused building on December 4 last year and “all was in order”.
But when an architect and building contractor visited as part of sporadic repair works just six weeks later they found the locks had been changed and the hotel taken over by the drug growers.
Fiscal depute Dylan Middleton said: “Entry was forced and, within the front reception area, there was a large quantity of equipment which had not been there previously.
“This included a number of large cylinder air filters, electrical equipment, transformer boxes, and lights. Within the ballroom there were PVC sheets erected in front of each of the windows and a large quantity of cardboard boxes containing bags of soil were stacked upon one another.
“A newly installed large power cable ran from the reception area to the lower ground floor. The attending architect followed the cable to the existing electric board within a cupboard in a small room on the lower ground floor at the rear of the hotel.
“This room was found to contain a number of lights suspended from the ceiling, above approximately 520 small green plants, each measuring about 8 inches in height and planted within their own compost pot. Also, within the room next to plants were a number of large water bottles, transformers and electric fans.”
Cannabis found in Huntly Arms Hotel valued at £421,000
The 520 juvenile plants each had a potential street value of between £220 – £810. Altogether they could have fetched between £114,400 and £421,200 at full maturity.
When police arrived half an hour later, at 9am, the four men were found in an upstairs bedroom with “four single beds, a fridge and a heater in the middle of the room along with various food items and personal belongings”.
They were taken to Kittybrewster custody suite and later cautioned and charged.
In reply, Glevis Xhapa stated to police “I only come to work two days ago but I had to leave because there was no work” and “I only came here to work, nothing else.”
The other three men had nothing to say. Police confirmed there was no human trafficking involved and all four men came to work by their own will.
The men’s position that their involvement was restricted to “working as gardeners” was not disputed by the Crown.
Locals keen to see hotel back in use
After lying vacant for years, Aberdeenshire Council recently took enforcement action ordering the owner to make improvements on grounds of proper maintenance.
Works resumed in March after Aberdeenshire Council chiefs issued the hotel’s Middlesex-based owners with an “amenity notice” to sort the unkempt building out.
The premises has a long history in Aboyne, with a stopping place being on the site of the hotel from as far back as 1432.
Bonnie Prince Charlie and Queen Victoria both stayed in earlier incarnations with the building being christened the Huntly Arms Hotel in 1882.
Sheriff Morag McLaughlin deferred the sentencing of all four men, each a prisoner of HMP Grampian in Peterhead, for the preparation of background reports.
They will be sentenced next month.
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