Men jailed after police raid on Neyland cannabis farm

Gentian Zhupa, 35, and Ergest Mucopata, 42, had been working on a cannabis farm in a unit at Honeyborough Industrial Estate to pay off debts to a criminal gang which smuggled them in to the country.

The defendants were each jailed for 12 months last week for being concerned in the supply of cannabis.

“I have to pass the least sentence I can by law,” said Judge Huw Rees.

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“It’s to be expected that you will be returned to your country of origin when you have served your sentence.

“The shorter the time you are in custody in this country, the better for the British taxpayer.

“That is the very least sentence – bordering on lenient – that I can pass.”

Police at the scene of the suspected cannabis farm at Honeyborough industrial estate Neyland (Image: Martin Cavaney)

Dyfed-Powys Police raided the unit on the afternoon of November 17 last year.

“Within the building were found a number of grow areas,” said prosecutor Craig Jones.

“It was a sophisticated example of a cannabis production site.”

The court heard that there was lighting and watering facilities for the cannabis plants, as well as basic living facilities for the men. The electricity had also been bypassed.

The officers discovered 814 cannabis plants, which had an estimated yield of between 22kg and 68kg of cannabis. The cannabis would have a had street value of between £88,000 and £350,000 – depending on the yield, Mr Jones said.

Both men were arrested at the scene.

The defendants – who are both of no fixed abode – have no previous convictions in the UK.

Dan Griffiths, for Zhupa, said: “He was trafficked in to the UK by a criminal gang, running up what he was told was a substantial debt in the process. 

Gentian Zhupa was arrested with his co-defendant at the cannabis farm in Neyland. (Image: Dyfed-Powys Police)

“He was told, in the absence of any money, he would have to work off any debt. He was subsequently taken to the site. He was provided with instructions on how to tend to the plants.

“He had been at the property for 10 days.

“In every sense, he was at the bottom of the supply chain.

“The defendant simply wishes to return home to his family in Albania and put this saga behind him.”

Ian Ibrahim, representing Mucopata, said: “He had been in the UK approximately two weeks at the time he was arrested. He had arrived in the UK in a place he was told was Manchester – he doesn’t know if it was – on November 3.

Ergest Mucopata was jailed for being concerned in the supply of cannabis. (Image: Dyfed-Powys Police)

“He had been told to pay off the debt incurred for transportation in the lorry he could work in agriculture – on a cattle farm.

“After two days, he was taken to the cannabis farm. He didn’t know where he was and speaks no English.

“He was essentially a gardener.”

Mr Ibrahim said medical expenses for Mucopata’s wife, as well as for their daughter when she fell ill, and the cost of rent had led to the defendant deciding to come to the UK to look for work.

“They couldn’t make ends meet so he decided to come to the UK to try and earn some money and a better life for his family,” he said.

Both men had denied a charge of abstracting electricity. The prosecution accepted these pleas, and not guilty verdicts were passed.