A man who lived in squalid conditions with a bed in a single kitchen and a bathroom claimed he maintained the hundreds of cannabis plants inside the building because he was being threatened. Jorgen Bami, 26, was arrested by Gwent Police officers PC David Brice and PC Amanda Williams while attempting to hide away from them in brambles at the back of the property on April 30.
At a hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Tuesday Martha Smith-Higgins, prosecuting, told the court how Gwent Police had grown suspicious of Bami’s home address at the Citadel, Snatchwood Road, Abersychan, for a host of reasons. The site was mostly unused, had padlocks on all of the doors, was covered at a main entrance by a steel sheet and a caged security door, and the windows were all boarded up. It also stunk of cannabis from the outside, she said.
After being caught the defendant’s mobile phone and wallet were seized and the officers broke into the building. Pictures shared by the Crown Prosecution Service show the conditions that Bami lived in and the extent of the operation.
