Officers from the Nuneaton and Bedworth policing team visited a unit on the Bayton Road Industrial Estate in Exhall at about 2:20 p.m. on 31 August 2023, less than two hours after National Grid tipped them off about unusually high electricity use that was blowing fuses at the local substation.[1][2] Finding the unit hot and unresponsive, an officer climbed in through a small side window and discovered a large cannabis operation with ducting, filters, irrigation and high-wattage grow lights behind stud walls.[1]
Investigations found about 1,046 six-week-old plants with an estimated cropped street value of £889,623, plus evidence of another 407 harvested plants.[1] Two men burst from a rear fire exit and were caught after a struggle and a chase: Haxhi Malaj, 31, and Donald Ponari, 22, both of no fixed abode, who said they had been smuggled into Britain and put to work watering the plants to pay off travel debts.[1] The getaway BMW’s driver, Adrian Lila, 28, of Coventry, was arrested nearby, and a search of his registered address on Cherry Close uncovered a second grow of 41 plants tended by Nimert Hoxhaj, 26.[1]
At Warwick Crown Court on 15 January 2024, Malaj and Ponari each received 28 months for the Bayton Road grow, while Hoxhaj and Lila each received 16 months for the Cherry Close grow.[1] The investigating detective said the operation showed clear organised-crime funding and elements of modern slavery in both grows.[1]
