Drugs worker tried to destroy iPhones as police burst in on £82,000 Leeds home cannabis farm

Officers forced their way into the property on Town Street in Middleton during an early-morning raid on May 22. Once inside they found Xhesian Miminin trying to break up the phones and running them under the tap to quickly destroy them.

The 23-year-old was swiftly detained and the phones seized. The found plants in various stages of growth across five rooms, complete with a “sophisticated and professional” set up including fans and extractors, prosecutor Jess Butterell told Leeds Crown Court.

The electricity to the house had also been bypassed. There were 150 plants in total with an estimated street value of £82,500.

Miminin made no comment during his police interview but later admitted an offence of producing cannabis. He has no previous convictions in the UK.

Mitigating, Ben Campbell said Miminin had arrived in the UK in December 2021 from Albania and was placed in a hotel to await an asylum application. He admitted that he did not attend an assessment and fled to London where he worked illegally on construction sites for more than a year.

But having lost his accommodation, he met a man who invited him to work as a cannabis farmer in Leeds. He argued Miminin “played a lesser role” having been put to work by a drugs gang.

The judge, Recorder Brian Whitehead jailed him for two years, telling him he could not suspend the sentence because of his “uncertain immigrations status”, and feared he would fall prey to other criminal gangs.