A cannabis farmer deported to his homeland of Albania in 2024 returned to the UK and was caught tending a grow in County Durham.
Erik Xhaxho was deported after serving a ten-month sentence in Scotland having been caught tending a cannabis farm in an apparently empty detached house in Kirkcaldy, Fifeshire, in January that year.
But he was arrested again, after police and energy company staff visited a former shop, in Burnopfield, County Durham, on June 26 this year.
Durham Crown Court was told that as officers were attempting to force their way into the two-storey property, Xhaxho opened the door.
Cannabis farmer Erik Xhaxho jailed again by a UK court and facing deportation for the second time back to homeland of Albania
(Image: Durham Constabulary)
He was detained and in a search of the property, 200 cannabis plants in various stages of growth, plus 518 seedlings were recovered.
Cainan Lonsdale, prosecuting, said rooms across the ground floor shop and flat above were being used, in what was a professional operation with sophisticated heating and lighting equipment in use.
Mr Lonsdale said expert analysis gave a yield estimate of between 20kg and 60kg, with a potential sale value of the cultivated cannabis between £57,000 and £207,000.
Some of the 200 plants seized, along with 518 seedlings, by police in raid of former shop premises in Burnopfield being used to grow cannabis to a commercial scale
(Image: Durham Constabulary)
Xhaxho, 24, of no fixed abode, admitted cannabis production.
Jonathan Gittins, in mitigation, said after the previous deportation, the defendant was brought back to the UK to pay off his debt and accepts he will again face deportation to his native Albania.
Judge Richard Bennett told the defendant: “You were deported after your previous offence in 2024, but you managed to regain entry to our country to become involved in similar criminality.
“Due to suspicions that there may be a cannabis grow, a search warrant was executed at the address in Bunropfield.
“Those suspicions were well founded as a cannabis farm was found across several rooms and floors.
“This was a professional set up and even on a conservative view, there was the potential to yield tens of thousands of pounds worth of cannabis.
“You had a key to the property, so you were free to come and go as you pleased.”
The judge said given his previous offence, the defendant would have known that cannabis was being grown to a commercial level and would have been aware of the scale of the operation.
Imposing a 27-month term of imprisonment Judge Bennett told Xhaxho: “As you have already been deported once and, as I understand it, you have already consented to being deported again, inevitably you will be deported when you are released from the custodial part of this sentence.
“If you are foolish enough to come back to the UK again in any circumstances, then you are likely to be faced with a sentence measured in years and not months.”
The judge also ordered forfeiture and destruction of the drugs and growing paraphernalia recovered by police.