A GANGSTER running a cannabis factory inside a run-down building has been jailed and warned he could be deported after serving his prison sentence.

Jorgen Bami, 26, was arrested hiding in brambles outside a building known as the Citadel on Snatchwood Road in the Abersychan area of Pontypool.

The defendant initially claimed he was the victim of modern slavery and claimed threats were made to murder his family back home in Albania.

He later abandoned this defence and it emerged from mobile phone evidence Bami was referred to as ‘Boss’ and would give criminal advice to others.

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The cannabis factory was housed inside the large derelict white building where all the windows had been covered and the electricity supply bypassed.

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There was a small kitchen, two bathrooms and a bed at the cannabis factory. Picture: CPS Wales

Martha Smith-Higgins, prosecuting, told Cardiff Crown Court: “Police officers could hear extraction fans from outside and smell cannabis.

“They could hear activity at the back of the building and ran there where they spotted this defendant trying to hide in the brambles.”

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The judge, Recorder Paul Hobson, told Bami he had ran a “sophisticated” operation. Picture: CPS Wales

After his arrest on April 30 the defendant was taken to Newport Central police station where he was interviewed by detectives.

Miss Smith-Higgins added: “In short he admitted being responsible for cultivating cannabis and said he’d come to the UK for a better life.

“He said he’d been brought here by other Albanians and that he owed them a £20,000 debt and that he would be working in Liverpool to pay off that debt.

“The defendant said he was dropped at the building in Pontypool in early March and told that his family in Albania would be killed if he did not co-operate.

“He told the police it was his role to water and feed the plants and that he did not leave the building.”

Bami had been in charge of three growing rooms inside the building where there were 274 plants which had a potential yield worth nearly £150,000 There was small kitchen there, two bathrooms and a bed.

Bami admitted the production of cannabis.

Gareth Williams, mitigating, asked the court to give him credit for his guilty plea and lack of any previous convictions.

His barrister added that the defendant had been a waiter in his native country and wanted to return home as he missed his family.

The judge, Recorder Paul Hobson, told Bami: “This was a fairly large and sophisticated example.

“It was a multi kilo yield operation.”

He added that the defendant would have had the “know-how” to manage such an enterprise.

Bami was jailed for 27 months and told he could be deported after serving his sentence.

The court was told the defendant spoke no English and he was assisted by an Albanian interpreter.