Drugs gang caught red-handed after police called to house

A drugs gang was caught setting up a cannabis farm after police responded to reports of a burglary.

Roland and Klodian Matranxhi, and Dashamir Rexhmati, were caught red-handed when officers descended on an address in Chorley New Road, Bolton. After the trio were arrested on November 12 of last year, police raided the house where they lived.

Large bags of cannabis - estimated to be worth between £100,000 and £200,000 - were found along with £11,000 in cash hidden inside a shoe box. Multiple notebooks containing shopping lists relating to growing cannabis were also seized from the address in Bradford Road, Huddersfield.

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The three men were already on the radar of police after cannabis with a street value of more than £1million was seized from a property in Hendham Vale, Harpurhey, on June 14 of last year.

A phone recovered at the address identified Roland from numerous text messages he had sent on how to cultivate the cannabis at the property. The trio were in the area on the day before the raid took place but changed their phone numbers to evade detention.

At Manchester Crown Court on Thursday (June 15), Roland Matranxhi, 26, was jailed for four years and six months. Klodian Matranxhi, 25, was jailed for four years while Rexhmati, 22, was jailed for three years.

All three men had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cultivate cannabis, production of cannabis, possession with intent to supply cannabis and money laundering.

PC Heather Gore, of COM North’s Challenger organised crime team, said: “We believe these men had been setting up cannabis farms to make a substantial and illegal profit by supplying it across the North West over the last 12-months.