Two Albanian men were forced to tend to a cannabis farm inside a Blackpool "hovel" by traffickers who threatened to kill them if they did not comply.

Arbri Dervishi and Francesk Markaj, both 26, were found in a derelict flat on Central Drive when police attended earlier this year and arrested over their involvement in the drug farm. Preston Crown Court this week heard the men had been smuggled into the country in a lorry and then forced to work on the farm to pay a debt to an organized crime group who arranged for them to ride on a lorry from Belgium.

Daniel Harman, representing Markaj, said the level of exploitation was such that if the men had died in the unsafe flat, the gang "wouldn't care, they'd move onto the next place". Dervishi hopes to remain in the country now that he has been set free from the traffickers and wants to apply to stay legally.

The court heard that the police attended the flat on Central Drive on March 23 and were let in by Dervishi. An officer noticed a wire running from an electric meter to the flat and arrested Dervishi on suspicion of abstracting electricity. A second officer went upstairs and found Markaj in a bedroom as well as cannabis plants spread across various rooms. 

In total, 105 plants were recovered with a potential yield of 4.2kg which had a wholesale value of between £12k-£32k and a street value of £52k. Defending Dervishi, Tom Lord said his client had been exploited by the criminals who arranged his transport to the UK. 

He said: "Like a lot of young men now, particularly from Albania, he entered the UK illegally but not entirely of his free will being exercised. He is an economic immigrant, he was originally in Italy for three years and, via a lorry from Belgium, entered the UK." Mr Lord said the group which brought him to the country then forced him to work as a gardener on the cannabis farm which was already set up. 

Mr Harman gave a similar background of Markaj being under the control of the traffickers and said both men explained this at their first police interview. He said there was a "very sad and tragic background" to Markaj choosing to leave Albania which had been set out in the report provided to the judge. Mr Harman also went further in criticizing the men who exploited the pair and sent them to live in the flat which he described as a "hovel" and in a "state of disrepair".

Comparing them to the recent cast of two men found dead in an old mill in Oldham, he said: "These are the sorts of people. They are insignificant to the gang masters - they pay their debt and they don't care about them. These properties could burn down and the people in them die and they wouldn't care, they'd move onto the next place. That's the level of exploitation we're dealing with."

Both men had earlier pleaded guilty to the production of cannabis and their representatives argued that they should be treated as having a "lesser role" within the sentencing guidelines. Sentencing, Judge Ian Unsworth QC accepted that, saying he was satisfied there were elements of "pressure, intimidation or coercion". He sentenced both men to nine months.

(Source: LancsLive)