A 32-year-old Albanian man has been sentenced to 12 months in prison after being caught tending to a cannabis farm in Carmarthen. 🌿⚖️
Nuredin Hoxha was discovered by police during a raid at a former commercial property on Old Llangynnor Road on February 4 this year. Officers found 394 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of up to £171,000, along with equipment including fans, vents, and lights. The electricity supply to the premises had been bypassed.
Swansea Crown Court heard that photos of the growing operation were found on Hoxha’s phone, which had been sent to unknown contacts between November and December 2024. WhatsApp conversations discussing chemicals for feeding the plants were also discovered, though messages in Albanian had not been translated.
During his interview, Hoxha claimed he had only been at the property for one week prior to the raid and denied the phone was his, despite it bearing his name and being linked to an email address in his name. He told authorities he had entered the UK from France by small boat around two years ago and owed a debt of €80,000 for his mother’s medical treatment.
Judge Geraint Walters expressed frustration at what he termed “the Albanian defence” – a pattern of similar claims in cannabis cases. Addressing Hoxha directly, the judge said: “When you discuss this sort of thing with colleagues perhaps you could point out that judges in this country are not quite as naïve as you may think.”
Hoxha, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to producing cannabis on the basis that his role was limited to watering and feeding plants. He had no previous convictions in the UK. The defendant will serve no more than half his sentence in custody before being released on licence, with any deportation matters left to the Home Office “if it gets around to it,” the judge added.
