Trail of evidence led to criminal involved in £226,000 Leeds-house cannabis farm
Clues left in house that had four floors of growing plants
A raid that unearthed a huge cannabis farm at a terraced house led to a trail of evidence to the men behind the illegal operation.
Officers smashed their way into the property in Beeston and found hundreds of plants, but nobody was present.
The subsequent investigation led to Khalid Yaqub.
He pleaded guilty to producing cannabis at Leeds Crown Court.
The 43-year-old appeared in court via video link from HMP Leeds, where he was being held on remand.
Prosecutor Graham O’Sullivan said that officers, armed with a warrant, attended the property on Burlington Road on October 6, 2022.
They found nobody inside the mid-terrace property, but growing cannabis plants filled all four floors.
There were 203 plants in total, with a potential yield of more than 20kgs of the drug with a street value of £226,000.
They were able to locate one defendant after a registration plate of a car was recorded of a driver that previously attended the house.
He was also found to have paperwork that linked him to the property. His phone also contained messages that “clearly” proved there was a second person involved - Yaqub.
When they finally caught up with Yaqub, they found in his home a manual about how to grow cannabis, cannabis seeds and £3,000 in cash.
Yaqub, of Burton Terrace, Beeston, gave a no-comment interview to police but later admitted producing cannabis.
He has two previous convictions for six offences, mainly for driving and none for drugs.
A probation report suggested Yaqub had been coerced into growing the drug, but he abandoned that basis of plea.
It was heard that he was now working legitimately and had become a father.
Judge Kate Rayfield said there had been “no good reason” why it had taken so long for the issue to come to court, and that it had worked to his advantage, allowing him to show he could stay out of trouble.
She gave him a two-year sentence, suspended for 18 months, with 15 rehabilitation days to complete with probation and 100 hours of unpaid work.
The first defendant, who was not named in court, had also previously received a suspended sentence.