Deported drug farmer found tending to £450,000 cannabis network across Leeds
He had been banned from the UK after previous drug conviction
An illegal immigrant previously deported was caught in the UK again working a network of cannabis farms at Leeds homes worth almost half a million pounds.
Ervist Kodheli had been jailed and the booted out of Britain in 2020, but was found to be working at four lucrative operations between 2024 and 2026.
The 33-year-old was jailed again at Leeds Crown Court this week.
The court heard that he had received an eight-month sentence at Sheffield Crown Court in 2020 after a cannabis grow was found in Barnsley. He was given a deportation order.
At an unknown time, the Albanian entered the UK again, prosecutor Beth Richardson said.
Officers raided a property on Burlington Grove on January 19, 2024, and found 88 plants spread across three floors.
The operation was worth £92,000. Kodheli’s fingerprints were found on light bulbs in two of the rooms, but nobody was at the property.
Four months later they raided another property on Bayswater Row. There were 143 plants across three floors worth £150,000.
Again, nobody was present and Kodheli’s fingerprints were found.
On March 11 this year they carried out another raid, this time at an empty ground-floor flat on Street Lane.
They found five one-kilogramme bags of dried cannabis. In a drawer they found Kodheli’s passport and a fake Greek passport.
They also found two council tax bills, one for a property on Nowell Mount, which they then raided on April 2.
Nobody appeared to be present again, but Kodheli was found hiding in the eaves of a third-floor bedroom.
A cannabis grow worth £155,000 was inside the property and the electricity had been bypassed.
Kodheli appeared in court over a video link from HMP Leeds this week where he admitted being concerned in the supply of cannabis, being in breach of a deportation order and possessing a false identity document.
Mitigating, Michael Greenhalgh said after being deported last time he was working in Belgium, but was persuaded he could earn more in the UK.
Mr Greenhalgh said: “He accepts entering illegally, it was a stupid thing to do.”
He said being an illegal immigrant reduced his options for accommodation, so agreed to stay at houses where cannabis farms were in operation.
He said Kodheli expected a custodial sentence and to be deported once again.
He was jailed for a total of five years and eight months.