Weed-growing immigrant hid under floorboards at fortified Leeds home during police raid
An immigrant tried to evade arrest after hiding under floorboards of a house during a drugs raid.
Officers smashed their way into the home that had been secured in a bid to deter invaders, with bars on the windows, wooden bolsters across the doors and external CCTV cameras recording movement.
Albanian national Andi Mahmudi was jailed at Leeds Crown Court after admitting producing cannabis, illegally extracting electricity and possessing criminal property.
Prosecutor Sophie Lamb said officers, armed with a warrant, went to the property on Middleton Road in Belle Isle at 7am on March 19.
The entered the property and immediately found three grow rooms and a further prepared space in the attic.
There were 61 plants in total, capable of producing 6.4kgs of cannabis.
They also found ID belonging to 21-year-old Mahmudi, but no sign of him.
However, they found loose floorboards in the semi-detached property, and when they lifted them up, found him under the house among waste cannabis plants and empty fertiliser bottles.
Mahmudi later told police he had been threatened with violence into working there.
Mitigating, Craig Sutcliffe said: “His best point is his early guilty plea.”
He said he had no previous convictions in the UK or Albania. He had come over three years hidden in a lorry and had worked in odd jobs to help pay back the debt owed to the trafficking gang.
However, he said he was then put to work at the cannabis farm, although says he never received money he was promised.
Mr Sutcliffe said Mahmudi anticipates he will be deported after serving his sentence.
The judge, Recorder Ian Mullarkey, jailed him for 27 months.