The sentence
Erik Xhaxho, 24, was sentenced to 27 months in prison after being caught tending a professional-scale cannabis grow in a former shop in Burnopfield, County Durham.[1][2] He had been deported to Albania in 2024 after serving a ten-month sentence in Scotland for tending a cannabis farm in an apparently empty detached house in Kirkcaldy, Fife, that January.[2]
The raid
Police executed a search warrant at the Burnopfield premises on 26 June and found Xhaxho inside, with 200 cannabis plants and 518 seedlings spread across the ground floor shop and the flat above.[1][2] The operation used professional heating and lighting equipment, and expert analysis put the potential yield at 20 to 60 kg, worth an estimated £57,000 to £207,000.[1][2]
Return and removal
Xhaxho told the court he had returned to the United Kingdom to pay off debts, and he accepted that he would be deported a second time.[2] Judge Richard Bennett said the set-up was plainly commercial and that Xhaxho, given his previous offence, would have known its scale.[2] The judge warned him that coming back again would likely mean a sentence measured in years rather than months.[2]
