Message 'needs to get through' to immigrants who come to UK illegally after Leeds drugs raid

The pair, who are from Albania, were caught tending to an operation at a property on Markham Avenue in Harehills. The police smashed their way into the property on April 3 and found 53 plants across two rooms.

Avni Selba, age 21, and Klajdi Cullhaj, age 19, tried to flee but were quickly arrested, prosecutor Robert Galley told Leeds Crown Court.

It was heard that then pair, like many others, were brought to the UK illegally and forced to work by a criminal gang to pay off the debt incurred by being transported across the English Channel.

Judge Andrew Stubbs KC told the pair, who were being held on remand at HMP Doncaster: “The sooner the message is received that travelling here for a better life the better, then organised gangs will be unable to recruit naive young men like you.

"You chose to become involved with them when you came here illegally. You are exploited by more sophisticated criminals. You put yourself in that position and both had hoped to make money.”

Both men admitted production of cannabis and were jailed for seven months each.

Mitigating for Cullhaj, Anastasis Tasou said his client had come to the UK aged 17 and feared repercussions if he refused to work on the cannabis operation. For Selba, Michael Greenhalgh said he was told by the gang that his debt would be cleared if he tended to the plants.