A man who was found running a £210,000 cannabis farm from an Inverbervie bungalow has been jailed for nearly two years.
Esmir Gjura, 30, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted tending to the large-scale drug farm within a house in the quiet coastal town.
When police raided the property, they found it had been converted into a cannabis farm with more than 260 plants spread across several rooms.
Gjura, an Albanian national, was found within and now faces deportation following his sentence.
His solicitor, Jenny Logan, told the court that Gjura had gotten into debt with an organised crime gang and had taken on this job to pay it off.
Cannabis plants spread across Inverbervie house
Fiscal depute Lucy Simpson told the court that in August last year, Police Scotland had received information that cannabis cultivation was taking place at the house on West Park Avenue.
Around 8.30am on September 5, officers raided the property and found Gjura in the kitchen.
“A large-scale cannabis cultivation was discovered,” Ms Simpson said.
“This had been spread across the living room and three bedrooms.
“Three rooms were observed to contain mature cannabis plants and the fourth room contained sapling plants.
“All rooms contained associated equipment including fans, thermometers, heat lamps, transformers and air filters.
“Officers also recovered two vacuum bags of cannabis. They contained a mixture of leaf, vegetable and stalk material.”
Accused will be deported
One of the bags was found to weigh almost 1.2kg.
However, they considered that not all the material in the bags would be used for consumption and therefore were unable to give a value.
Of the 261 plants found, 92 were considered mature and 169 were saplings.
The total maximum value for the plants was estimated to be £211,410.
Police drug experts stated that, in their opinion, the cannabis farm was consistent “with the kind of commercial cultivation commonly utilised by organised crime gangs to generate a consistently profitable revenue stream”.
In the dock, Gjura pleaded guilty to two charges of producing and supplying a controlled drug.
Defence solicitor Jenny Logan told the court that Gjura’s situation was the “not uncommon story that we are beginning to hear where someone comes into the UK and falls into the wrong type of employment, not fully realising the job they had taken on”.
“He took on this work to pay off debts that he had incurred,” she said, adding that there was “an inevitability” about the outcome for Gjura.
Ms Logan added that Gjura would then be deported from the UK following any prison sentence he was to receive.
Sheriff Ian Wallace told Gjura that there was only one disposal open to the court.
“First, given the nature of the offence, and it’s clear that you cannot take part in any community sentence in any case as you will at the end of your sentence be detained by the immigration authorities,” the sheriff said.
“But I also take into account the role you played in this significant operation, which was of a particularly low level.”
Sheriff Wallace sentenced Gjura, whose address was given as HMP Grampian, to 20 months in prison.
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