Bolton: Former chef tended town centre cannabis farm

Gledis Muca, 20, was arrested after a police raid on Bath Street earlier this year, where officers found him in charge of more than 100 cannabis plants.

Bolton Crown Court heard how Muca, who was still in his teens at the time, was at the bottom of a much bigger pyramid.

John Richards, prosecuting, said: “He was 19 years of age when he arrived in the UK and came to this country in order to pay off his debt in Albania.”

The case was heard at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

He added: “His job was to water the plants and switch the lights on and off.

“He was told not to leave the property and food and groceries were brought to the house.”

Mr Richards told the court that Muca had apparently been approached  about running the cannabis farm by another group of men at a café in London.

He arrived in the Manchester area last autumn before heading on to run the Bolton cannabis farm in October.

Mr Richards explained that Muca, of no fixed abode, was to receive a payment of £2000 every two months, but that the farm was raided and he himself arrested after being given just one payment.

He said: “He accepts that this was motivated by financial gain to repay his debts and that he was not forced to work at the property.”

Around 110 plants were discovered in total along with heating and lighting equipment, while Muca himself appeared to live in a small room with a bed, microwave and freezer.

When the police raided the farm, which Mr Richards said was above a “derelict shop”, Muca tried to escape through a back window but was stopped and arrested soon after.

He did not answer questions when interviewed by police but was remanded into custody and eventually pleaded guilty to producing cannabis when brought before the court on February 22 this year.

Muca had run the farm for around three-and-a-half-months.

John Caudle, defending, argued that the young man was entitled to credit for having pleaded guilty and accepted that “obviously these operations are run to make money.”

But he told the court that Muca, who has no previous convictions, had come to the UK to “lead a better life” and had worked hard in his homeland first in construction and then as a chef.

Mr Caudle also said that Muca had run up his debt of around £20,000 in Albania for “unrelated matters”, which he said was “in other words not related to the production of cannabis.”

He said: “From that, in the context of the evidence, to my mind it clearly means in the context of being brought over.

“Your honour knows that people are not brought over for free.”

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Mr Caudle claimed that the 20-year-old had clearly been “at the bottom of the pyramid” where the drugs trade was concerned and that the “payments” where more about paying his debt that making money for himself.

He said: “Particularly when one takes into account the squalor he was living in, it seems more likely that it was an amount to pay off the debt.”

Judge Nicholas Clarke KC accepted that Muca had played a “lesser role” in the criminal operation but reminded the court he had still chosen to take part willingly.

Addressing the defendant, he said: “This was your way of making a quick criminal profit to pay off your transportation costs of coming to this country.”

He sentenced Muca to nine months in prison.