Three men linked to a string of cannabis farms worth up to £400,000 are starting prison sentences today.

Laert Duzha, 31, Marigel Balla, 25, and Edi Miraka, 34, were arrested as police raided a series of properties converted for cannabis cultivation across Teesside.

Prosecutor Ian West detailed the discoveries made by officers, starting in Middlesbrough, on September 25 last year:

  • A terraced house on Kindersley Street, North Ormesby with 144 plants and light, ventilation and watering systems installed in a number of rooms, capable of producing 4 to 12kg of cannabis worth £40,000 to £120,000;
  • A house on nearby Deacon Street with 216 plants growing, capable of producing 6 to 18kg worth £60,000 to £180,000, found about 40 minutes later;
  • The three men found at a property on Bedale Avenue, Billingham - not a cannabis farm but "the hub for a cannabis-growing operation", with 4kg of bagged, dried and harvested cannabis worth about £40,000 in the loft, £6,822 cash around the house including behind the fireplace, and a Vauxhall Insignia linked to the two Middlesbrough farms outside;
  • A house on Stavordale Road, Seaham, County Durham with 110 plants, capable of producing 3 to 9kg, worth £30,000 to £90,000, where a fourth man was arrested and later jailed for a year as a cannabis farmer.

Mr West said: "There were in total 470 plants found growing between the three houses, worth if all had been harvested in accordance with expectation up to about £400,000."

Balla and Duzha's fingerprints were found on the kilo bags of cannabis at the "hub" property in Billingham.

Billingham tenant Duzha's prints were also found on "many pages" of notebooks containing drug dealing lists of names and figures, with Balla's print on one page.

Cannabis seized by police

The Crown said Duzha played a leading role in the operation, directing or organising production on a commercial scale, while Balla played a significant role.

All three admitted conspiring to produce cannabis, their first conviction.

Duzha and Balla also admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply, and Duzha admitted possessing criminal property. None had previous convictions.

Jonathan Walker, defending Duzha, said: "Clearly it's being run for commercial gain, but the enterprise falls a country mile away from being able to produce industrial quantities.

"It's not an industrial-sized grow. It's a commercial grow.

"Experience tells us that leading lights in this type of enterprise are not routinely caught alongside gardeners.

"This defendant is anything but a leading light."

Laert Duzha

He said Duzha had a "logistical role" and cannot have had influence on those above him.

Andrew Turton, representing Balla, said he came into the UK illegally, owed money for his passage and worked at a car wash.

He said Balla's primary role was a gardener tending plants at Kindersley Street, but agreed the forensic evidence on the harvested cannabis and notebook put him higher.

Balla maintained he had no involvement in the cash found in Billingham.

Marigel Balla

A photo of the defendants together showed they were friends and in similar positions, added Mr Turton.

He said Balla would welcome deportation as he had a gravely ill mother and disabled father in Albania.

Judge Jonathan Carroll said it was substantial, professional and industrial cannabis production at multiple sites.

He said: "I'm entirely satisfied that this was an operation fairly and properly described as producing industrial quantities for commercial use.

"There are in effect three factory sites together with one managerial site. There is substantial evidence of a successful past grow.

Edi Miraka

"The quantity of plants as discovered were capable of producing approximately 40kg, and the volumes of cash involved were very substantial indeed.

"Both Balla and Duzha were within at least a significant role and at the very top end of it."

He jailed "principal offender" Duzha for four years and 10 months.

Balla was jailed for three years and nine months. Farmer Miraka was jailed for a year.