AN illegal immigrant who entered the UK “to find a better life” was instead caught in the midst of an industrial operation to grow around £2 million worth of cannabis.
Rition Mone, 26, was arrested after he was found hiding behind plastic sheeting within a disused factory in Hythe Station Road, Colchester.
The building had been converted into an industrial-sized cannabis growing operation, comprising 6,500 plants at the time police carried out a raid in April last year.
Read more: Neighbours react with shock after police raid £2m cannabis farm
Officers were called to the area in relation to another matter when they noticed the smell of cannabis.
Ipswich Crown Court heard when they investigated what they thought was a disused factory, they noticed the windows had been covered and CCTV cameras installed.
As they waited for a warrant to be granted, officers spotted a number of people fleeing across the roof of the building.
Joe Bird, prosecuting, said: “With that, they moved in and gave chase, but also searched the factory.
“They discovered what could only be described as an industrial scale cannabis operation. Thirteen individual rooms had been set up with plastic sheeting, windows covered with lighting set up.”
A ventilation system was in place extracting air from each of the rooms, while gardening equipment was found.
Police also found a make-shift living quarters had been set up for approximately six people.
Mone was the only individual found inside the factory and he appeared to be talking to someone on a mobile phone.
The court heard the plants seized would have yielded more than 11kg of cannabis, worth between £1.2m and £2.4m on the streets.
Mone admitted a single charge of producing a Class B drug.
Barry Gilbert, mitigating, told the court his client had entered the UK illegally from his home country of Albania by requesting passage in the back of a truck.
He said Mone had been at the factory for a number of weeks.
“These people were expected to stay in the factory, water the plants and do whatever was necessary,” he said.
Mr Gilbert said Mone had agreed to tend to the plants to pay of the debt he accrued securing his entry to the UK.
He said: “Mr Mone had been told in order to work of the debt he was going to be employed in a restaurant. In fact, when they arrived in the truck they all were put into the cannabis factory.
“He was just looking for a better life in England.”
Judge Emma Peters said: “You came, I’m told, for a better life. But that’s not what you found when you got here.”
She sentenced Mone to three years and two months imprisonment, but said she was disappointed not to be sentencing the people “at the top of the chain”.
“One of the most miserable parts of my job is that I often get to sentence people like you at the bottom of the chain, rather than the people at the top of the chain who really make the money out of this,” she said.
“But ultimately you were playing a part in producing what was undoubtably industrial levels of cannabis for commercial use.”
Mone will likely face deportation upon his release from prison.
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