Laughing Wakefield cannabis gardener said 'goodbye my babies' to his plants when arrested
A cannabis gardener bit a fond farewell to his plants during a police raid, as he laughed and said: “Goodbye my babies”.
Fati Metallari was tending to 200 plants in an unoccupied building on Barnsley Road, South Elmsall, Leeds Crown Court heard.
The bust came after businesses either side of the former flooring company had complained about the overpowering stench of cannabis seeping through to their own businesses.
Officer went to the property on December 12 and forced entry. They found two rooms containing 50 plants each, and another two rooms on different levels containing 60 and 40 juvenile plants, prosecutor Verty Barnes told the court.
Albanian national Metallari was stood in the middle of the plants in one of the rooms. He made the comment as he was arrested and escorted away.
They found an iPhone on him, a key in the door, plus a well-stocked kitchen area and a bedroom containing a double and single bed.
The 20-year-old said he had arrived illegally in the UK on the back of a lorry about eight months ago, and was approached by a man just a few weeks before the raid to tend to the cannabis farm.
He claimed he was too scared to leave the property and was threatened with being shot if he did not obey. He admitted a charge of producing cannabis. He has no previous convictions.
Mitigating, Christopher Morton said Metallari expects to be deported once released from prison and says he wants to return to Albania and stay.
He said he entered an early guilty plea and said of the cannabis operation: “He was given free accomodation and food and accepts there was an expectation of financial reward.”
The judge, the Recorder of Leeds, Guy Kearl KC told Metallari: “You were free to come and go as your pleased. There was a key, food in the fridge, an iPhone should you want to contact anybody and the premises were equipped to allow you to live there.”
He jailed him for 18 months which had been reduced to “reflect his young age and lack of other convictions”.