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Migrant said ‘prison is better than Albania’ after being caught growing £250,000 of cannabis

Telegraph reporters
·2 min read
Maidstone Crown Court was told the cannabis farm’s potential yield had a street value between £166,000 and £260,000 - PA Wire
Maidstone Crown Court was told the cannabis farm’s potential yield had a street value between £166,000 and £260,000 - PA Wire

A migrant caught growing £250,000 of cannabis told police that “prison is better than Albania” as he was arrested, a court has heard.

Runi Firaku, Drillon Sulaj, Andi Zyberaj and Ermir Zyberaj, were caught at a cannabis factory set up in a derelict block of flats in Strood, Kent, in August this year.

Police found the class B drug growing in several rooms of the three-storey property, with the men acting as “gardeners” for the 347 plants.

Maidstone Crown Court, Kent, was told the potential yield had a street value between £166,000 and £260,000.

Firaku, 43, from Luton, had only been at the building for four to five days, having arrived in the UK legally on Aug 5.

Prosecutor Timothy Devlin told the sentencing hearing: “When asked by police if he knew it was illegal to grow these drugs, he said he did but that ‘prison is better than Albania’.”

Debt to people-smuggling gang

Sulaj, 32, was said by his barrister Kerry Waite to have been ‘put under pressure’ to pay off his debt of £20,000 to the people-smuggling gang who had organised his illegal entry into the UK in March this year.

Andi Zyberaj, 35, and Ermir Zyberaj, 32, who are unrelated, had also been smuggled into the UK - one in the back of a van and the other by lorry - and were living in Luton.

The court was told Ermir Zyberaj was paying off a debt of €50,000, although it was not said if this also related to people-smuggling.

All four men, said to have had their vulnerability ‘exploited’ by others, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the production of cannabis.

Firaku and the Zyberajs were each jailed for seven months, while Sulaj was jailed for eight months.

Passing sentence on Thursday, Judge Philip St.John-Stevens said he accepted they were not involved “through choice or desire”, and of Firaku’s remark about prison he added: “It puts into context why you felt obliged to commit this offence.”

Having been in custody since their arrests, they should be released within days.