A young man was forced to leave his home country for Britain and become a "gardener" in a Swansea cannabis factory so he could pay off a family debt to a gang, a court heard. Klajdi Zalli said he had not been outside the drug farm for about two months by the time police raided the house.
Officers found the 23-year-old Albanian on the morning of March 15 at the property in Grenfell Town, Bon-y-maen. They forced the front door open and saw Zalli attempting to flee through the back garden. After they threatened him with Tasers he resigned himself to arrest, prosecutor Georgia Donohue told Swansea Crown Court.
Police seized 122 cannabis plants from four growing rooms which contained fluorescent lights and reflectors suspended by adjustable wires. With a potential yield of 10kg the plants were worth up to £52,000. There was also a kitchen which Zalli used as both a living room and bedroom. The house's electricity supply had been bypassed.
