TWO Albanian men have been jailed for their part in a cannabis factory at a house in Llanbadarn Fawr, run by a London gang.

Swansea Crown Court heard how police officers executed a warrant on a large, isolated detached house in Llanbadarn Fawr on 24 November last year and found a sophisticated cannabis-growing operation, believed to be worth up to £255,000 to the London gang running it.

Officers found 123 large plants in six rooms along with lighting, a ventilation system and 169 seedlings.

The court heard that outside the house, there was a BMW car which the cannabis gang was using to ferry supplies across the border.

Albanian nationals, Elidon Zeka, 22, of Edinburgh Road, Walthamstow, London, and Morin Lalaj, 22, of no fixed abode, were found in the property and both pleaded guilty to producing cannabis.

Zeka also pleaded guilty to possession of criminal property namely the cash found on him.

Brian Simpson, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that officers executed the warrant on 24 November last year and found six rooms of the house had been given over to the growing of cannabis with insulation boards over the windows, plastic sheeting on the floors and a light and ventilation system installed.

The electricity meter to the property had been bypassed and Lalaj's fingerprints were later found on the fridge in the house and on a number of dehumidifiers.

The court heard police estimated that the potential yield of the crop was more than £255,000 and that since the house had been purchased in the February of that year two other such crops could have been grown and harvested.

Outside the house was a BMW which subsequent inquiries showed had made eight journeys from London to Aberystwyth since April 2022.

The prosecutor said it was the Crown's case that the BMW, and another car which police had seized nearby a week earlier and which had made 24 trips to west Wales, were being used to deliver supplies to the cannabis growing operation.

In their interviews Zeka answered "no comment" to all questions asked while Lalaj said he had been at the house for around three weeks following his release from an immigration centre.

Dan Griffths for Zeka, said the defendant had travelled to the UK 17 months ago as an economic migrant seeking work.

He said Zeka found work at a car wash and was introduced "to those involved in the management" of the Aberystwyth cannabis operation.

Dyfed Thomas, for Lalaj, his client had owned a small holding in Albania but had run up debt to the tune of 15,000 euros to loan sharks and had fled abroad after threats were made to his life. He said the defendant had crossed the English Channel in one of the small boats that were often seen on the news and he said Lalaj also did not claim to have been forced into working in the Aberystwyth house.

Lalaj was sentenced to 29 weeks in prison. With a one-quarter discount for his pleas, which were entered at a later stage, Zeka was sentenced to 30 weeks in custody.