Drugs cartel recruited Albanian man to work in £100k cannabis factory in Leicester

An illegal immigrant was recruited to work in a city cannabis factory by a mafia-style cartel.

Albanian national, Fariol Dizdari, entered the UK from France using a friend's passport.

Leicester Crown Court was told he ended up working as a cannabis plant gardener in a converted house in Dannett Street, near Fosse Road North.

When the police raided the premises on Tuesday February 18, they found 70 mature plants and 77 saplings in three grow rooms, said the prosecutor, Claire Howell.

Dizdari, 32, had just one pound coin on him and worked there to obtain accommodation and food as payment.

"I don't go as far as to find you were acting under duress but I can say you were taken advantage of.

"Those controlling this house made sure you were the one vulnerable to arrest and they stayed away.

"There's no evidence you were being paid anything other than being allowed to stay in the house."

Mitigation

Graham James, mitigating, said Dizdari, a married father of two children in Albania, worked as a carpenter in France before coming to the UK on a friend's passport.

He said: "No crop had been harvested in the time he'd been there and he had just one pound in his pocket when he was arrested on the premises.

"Those who controlled the factory managed to get hold of him."

He said Dizdari was in fear of the "dangerous" leader of an overseas crime gang, responsible for murders in his homeland.

Mr James added: "He found himself working for the same Mafia cartel when he was found in this country."

Dizdari was jailed for eight months.