Cannabis ‘gardeners’ jailed over cultivation worth up to £3.6m

Two “gardeners” have been jailed for almost four years for cultivating cannabis worth up to £3.6 million in a town centre.

Glendian Daci, 26, and Aurel Xhoka, 33, pleaded guilty last month to producing the controlled class B drug at a property in West Stewart Street, Greenock, Inverclyde, between December 2023 and January this year.

The High Court in Glasgow heard on Thursday that the plants were valued at between £1.2 million and £3.6 million.

Judge Lady Drummond jailed the men, both Albanian, to 45 months each, reduced from a sentence of five years due to their early guilty pleas.

She said: “When deciding on the sentence I take into account, as I must, the amount of cannabis plants and their value, which is significant – they are valued at between £1.2 million and £3.6 million.

“I also take into account the part you both played, which is essentially as gardeners.

“I recognise this was an operation that was already ongoing before you became involved. I take into account the period within which you were involved.

“For producing such a large-scale commercial production of cannabis, the only appropriate disposal is custody.”

Tony Graham KC, representing Xhoka, said the 33-year-old was attracted to the UK by its “reputation for being able to provide opportunity beyond reality”.

He said the cannabis cultivation was already ongoing before Xhoka arrived in the country and described him as a “useful pawn” to those behind the scheme.

Tony Lenehan KC, representing Daci, said his client came to the UK in the hope of making a better life and did not join the operation “knowingly or willingly”.

He told the court: “He was misled about what was to happen and then stuck with it till police came.

“He was a reluctant subordinate in a venture by others.”