Smethwick men jailed after commuting hundreds of miles each week to run Devon cannabis farm

Avni Boufi and Bekin Prengzaj were arrested as they left a house in Exeter which had been converted into a drugs factory with the electricity meter bypassed to avoid the lights, fans and heaters running up a huge energy bill.

Checks on their movements and phones showed they had been visiting the house every few days to check the plants and even had a living space inside it with a kitchen and TV room.

They were driving long distances from their homes in the Black Country and were thought to be part of a larger organised crime group from the West Midlands which was supplying users in Exeter, South and East Devon.

The drugs they were growing would have been worth hundreds of thousands of pounds if they had all reached full maturity and been harvested.

They were both illegal immigrants from Albania, although one is still claiming asylum after four years in Britain, and the other had moved to Greece before coming to this country.

Boufi, aged 30, of Marlborough Road, Smethwick, and Prengzaj, aged 32, of no fixed address, admitted conspiracy to supply cannabis and were both jailed for 18 months by Judge Stephen Climie at Exeter Crown Court.

Boufi’s sentence means he is liable for deportation to Greece when he is released. The judge banned both from driving and ordered the forfeiture of their car and £774 cash seized from the pair.

The judge told them:”You both became involved in supplying cannabis as part of a County Lines operation. It was a sophisticated and well organised operation but neither of you were leading players in it.

“There must have been a significant degree of trust so far as the two of you were concerned because of the number of journeys and the quantities of drugs left at the house. The only mitigation is from your pleas and the delay between them and sentence.”

Miss Felicity Payne, prosecuting, said police received intelligence that cannabis was being grown at a house in Cowick Lane, Exeter, and plain clothes officers watched the property on May 18 last year.

Neighbours had told them that two men arrived by car every couple of days and had arrived the previous night. Boufi and Prengzaj were arrested as they left the house at 11.30am.

Rooms on all floors had been set up for cannabis growing in a sophisticated system and the electricity supply had been bypassed. There was also a living space with wide screen televisions.

Phone and number plate recognition cameras confirmed the men had made frequent visits from the Birmingham area over the previous weeks. There were also messages indicative of supply.

Mr Mizan Abdulrouf, defending, said both men had been drawn into the conspiracy because their immigration status prevented them from finding legitimate employment.

He said they had both been on remand since their arrest and Boufi plans to return to his family in Greece regardless of whether he is deported, while Prengzaj hopes to regularise his immigration status so he can work.

He came to Britain four years ago and submitted an asylum claim two years ago which has still not been resolved.