Two live-in gardeners who looked after crops at an industrial drugs growing operation have been jailed.

Klevis Kurti and Eljohn Mozhika, both 22, looked after a crop equivalent to 900 plants at an industrial unit in Eastbourne.

They watered and tended to the plants and turned lights on and off at different times so as not to arouse suspicion.

His Honour Judge Martin Huseyin told the men, both Albanian, that they would almost certainly be deported after spending at least 40 per cent of a 14 month sentence in prison.

The Maple Road industrial unit was raided by a police tactical unit on February 19 this year.

Judge Huseyin described it as a very large commercial operation and said the men were clearly part of something much bigger.

Both men were living in squalid conditions at the industrial unit and had never received any payment. Judge Huseyin said: "On the evidence, neither of you were doing anything more than the most menial, low-level work.

"You are both rather like the small cogs in a very large machine."

The court heard it was likely both men were working to pay off debts of between £3,000 to £5,000 to people traffickers who brought them across the Channel in small boats. The judge said both men had offered familiar stories about coming from poverty and working to send money home for relatives’ medical bills.

He said: "It's a story we hear week-in, week-out in this court.

"You were probably paying off illegal traffickers who brought you into the UK.

"It reinforces my impression there was a degree of exploitation.

"You were recruited, no doubt, to come to the UK to improve a rather impoverished life.

"I have no doubt you expected financial gain but it unlikely you received anything before you were arrested.

"Others take away the considerable profits from the 25-75kg of cannabis a year this location was capable of producing.

"It was a sophisticated operation with all the equipment needed for a successful production facility."

Police found 470 plants at the industrial unit.

Experts said the plants could produce three crops a year and should be regarded as a grow of at least 900.

Seedlings were brought to the unit to be matured before being dried and packaged elsewhere, Lewes Crown Court heard.

The judge ordered the drugs and equipment to be destroyed.