Three jailed over 3,058-plant cannabis farm in Irvine shopping centre
Three Albanian men were jailed at the High Court in Glasgow on 3 September 2025 for growing 3,058 cannabis plants in the former Irvine Forum shopping centre. Police raided the industrial-scale farm in September 2024; the crop was valued at between £600,000 and £1.8 million.
🇬🇧 Irvine Forum shopping centre, Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland · United Kingdom
Three Albanian men were jailed at the High Court in Glasgow on Wednesday 3
September 2025 for running an industrial-scale cannabis farm in the former
Irvine Forum shopping centre in North Ayrshire.[1][2]
Police raiding the site in September 2024 found 3,058 cannabis plants, reported
to be worth between £600,000 and £1.8 million.[1][2]
Elton Skenderi, 29, Gjovalin Toma, 31, and Eduard Daja, 39, had pleaded guilty
to offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act on 6 August.[1][2]Daja also admitted
breaching a deportation order imposed in July 2023 after an earlier
cannabis-production conviction at Leeds Crown Court.[1][2]
Judge Lord Mulholland sentenced Skenderi to five years and three months and
Toma to six years, while Daja received six years plus a consecutive nine months
for the deportation breach.[1][2]
The judge rejected the claim that the men were victims of trafficking or modern
slavery, telling them they were cannabis farmers pure and simple.[1][2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
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)
