Two Albanians jailed for 12 months over 270-plant farm in Easington Lane
On 15 October 2026 Newcastle Crown Court jailed Adriatik Cela, 49, and Elton Rustemi, 40, for 12 months each after they admitted cultivating cannabis at a High Street property in Easington Lane where police found 270 plants in July. Both entered the UK illegally and face deportation.
🇬🇧 Easington Lane, Sunderland (sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court) · United Kingdom
In July 2026 Northumbria Police, tipped off about drug production, went to a property on High Street,
Easington Lane, Sunderland, found the back door unlocked, saw a bypassed electricity meter and roof
vents, and discovered 270 cannabis plants in growing areas with heating, lighting and
ventilation.[1][2]Elton Rustemi was watering plants; Adriatik Cela was found hiding in a loft;
both were arrested.[2]
At Newcastle Crown Court on 15 October 2026 both Albanian nationals, of no fixed address, pleaded
guilty to cultivating cannabis.[1][2]Recorder Harry Vann jailed each for 12 months and said they
face deportation, which they had volunteered for.[1]Cela, 49, said he had been in the UK about 20
days after arriving in a lorry and that his role was watering plants.[2]Rustemi, 40, said fellow
Albanians had taken him to an already-running farm and left food; he had been there one to one and a
half months.[2]
Photos and video
Adriatik Cela and Elton Rustemi superimposed on an image of the Easington Lane grow rooms.Photo details
Callum Roper, 22, of Holton Road, Barry, was jailed for 30 months at Cardiff Crown Court after admitting offences involving the supply of cannabis and magic mushrooms. He pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of both drugs between 3 December 2025 and 14 September 2026 and had been remanded in custody awaiting sentence.
Bolton Crown Court sentenced seven members of three linked drug gangs that trafficked cocaine and cannabis between Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent and North Wales. Five men received prison sentences of up to eleven and a half years, while two couriers received community orders and two leaders await later sentencing.
Daniel Thompson, 36, was found with 8,223.6 grams of cannabis resin, valued at up to £35,950, when officers searched a house on Moss Side Lane in Rixton in July 2023. Chester Crown Court gave him a nine-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months and 100 hours of unpaid work after he admitted possessing the resin with intent to supply and possessing cocaine.
Sentenced 1Cannabis 8.2236 kgPrison 9 months suspended for 12 months
Bradford Crown Court jailed Alfie Leahy, 21, for five years and Connor Broadbent, 26, for three years and four months over drugs found when police raided two homes in the Holmewood area at dawn on 17 July 2026. Cannabis was seized at a Grayswood Crescent address and cocaine, cash and jewellery at Dawson Street; police put the total street value of the drugs at more than £22,000.
Charged 2Prison 5 years (Leahy); 3 years and 4 months (Broadbent)
