A pair of cannabis farmers who converted Forfar swimming pool into a massive drugs operation have been jailed.
Albanian illegal immigrants Hajri Musa and Gerald Daci were discovered tending a crop of drugs worth nearly £200,000 inside the abandoned building.
The disused pool had lain empty since 2017 and had been sold by Angus Council for £50,000 months before the cultivation came to light.
Last week, Sheriff Tim Niven-Smith jailed the pair for three years each.
‘Crystal-clear’ message
The sheriff said: “You both pled guilty to producing a controlled drug in a disused swimming pool in Forfar.
“There appears to have been a number of different areas within the former leisure facility being used to grow cannabis.
“I was told there was a complex electrical system.
“The value of cannabis recovered ranges from £50,000 to £187,500.
“This was a large-scale commercial enterprise.
“I am going to proceed on the basis you were both ‘gardeners’.
“The court accepts that often the individuals within the cultivation sites have been brought to this country by the scourge of mankind – human traffickers.
“It is notorious that those trafficked in this way are subject to threats and intimidation and are often little more than slaves for their masters.
“There requires to be a concise, crystal-clear message that the courts in Scotland will not tolerate criminal gangs from wherever they might originate weaving their way into the fabric of our society, by cultivating or distributing drugs on a commercial scale.”
Pair arrested fleeing pool
Fiscal depute Gavin Letford told Dundee Sheriff Court both men were Albanian nationals who had entered the United Kingdom illegally.
“Forfar Swimming Pool is a disused pool which has been sitting empty for a number of years.
“It was boarded up to prevent members of the public entering the four-storey building.
“Police received intelligence about a significant cannabis cultivation.
“Police attended and entry was forced.
“Daci attempted to escape through a skylight in the roof and was apprehended.
“Musa was arrested on the first floor.
“The disused pool and changing room area had been turned into a growing area.
“There were approximately 150 plants.
“There was a further growing room on the floor above. There were around 100 further plants.
There was plastic sheeting on the floor and ceiling.”
Illegal immigrants
Receipts were found in the hastily-assembled living area, which showed the gang had bought supplies from Asda and B&Q to set up the sophisticated operation.
Mr Letford said the crop had been assessed as having a realisable total value of nearly £200,000 when it was found on August 8 last year.
Both men admitted cultivating cannabis.
Solicitor Ali Short, for Musa, 39, from Paisley, said her client had submitted an asylum claim but had no status in the UK and would continue to be held in custody by the Home Office.
Daci, 21, from London, was said to have been in the UK illegally for a number of years and had already notched up a previous conviction for a firearms offence.
The former Forfar pool – which was gifted to the town by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie – was sold to Edinburgh-based Developments North Country Ltd nearly five months before the drugs farm was discovered.
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