A judge has said police would be failing in their public duty if they did not properly investigate the international criminal gangs responsible for running cannabis farms in Wales.
The judge spoke out as he sentenced an Albanian man caught working as a so-called gardener in Swansea Valley house which had been given over to the production of the drug.
Judge Geraint Walters said it "should not be beyond the wit of man" for detectives to find out who was higher up the chain of command and to go after them, but in the experience of the courts it seemed police regarded catching catching a low-level gardener as "case closed".
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Brian Simpson, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that police executed a search warrant at a house on Gelliderw in Rhydyfro, Pontardawe, on February 2 this year. Selim Hoxha was arrested after fleeing through a window, and inside the house officers found virtually the whole property had been given over to the production of cannabis including the attic which contained more than "200 nursery plants". Five rooms fitted out with lights and fans were being used to grow plants, and the electricity supply to the property had been tampered with. The court heard the potential wholesale value of the harvest was up to £119,000.
Mr Simpson said following an examination of 26-year-old Hoxha's phone, the prosecution accepted he had been effectively working as a gardener" at the cannabis farm.
In his subsequent interview the defendant said he had initially moved from Albania to Germany but, unable to find work in that country, had come to the UK in the back of a lorry. He said he had gone to London but - again unable to find work - had travelled to Swansea where he slept rough for a few days before meeting men who spoke Albanian and who offered him work. Hoxha told police he had been at the Pontardawe property for three months before the raid and had not received any payment but had been given food and a place to sleep. He added that he was trying to earn money to send back to Albania to pay for a heart operation for his mother.
Selim Hoxha, of no fixed abode, had previously pleaded guilty to producing cannabis when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions in the UK or in other jurisdictions.
Dan Griffiths, for Hoxha, descried his client as a naive young man who was "very much at the bottom of the ladder" and was being exploited by those above him. He said the defendant would undoubtedly face the deportation process at the end of his prison sentence.
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Judge Geraint Walters described Hoxha's version of events as told to police in his interview as "complete and utter rubbish", and said the defendant had clearly been brought to the UK by a criminal gang to work in one of their cannabis-growing operations.
He asked the prosecutor if police were trying to identify members of the gang involved in setting up the Pontardawe farm such as by finding out who was renting the property, and who the defendant had been in contact with on his phone. Mr Simpson said inquiries were "ongoing".
The judge said police would be "failing in their public duty if they thought it was a matter of case closed" when they catch a gardener working in a cannabis farm, though in the experience of the courts that is what happened.
He said: "Cannabis farms are mushrooming in all out communities. They are the work of greedy criminals. Particular efforts need to be made to catch those who are high up in the chain of these criminal enterprises. It should not be beyond the wit of man to work out who is higher up the ladder and bring them before the courts to allow courts to impose sufficiently severe sentences to deter such criminals."
Following the sentencing guidelines and with a one-quarter discount for his guilty plea the judge sentenced Hoxha to nine months in prison.
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