Three jailed over 889-plant £986,800 cannabis farm in Oldham
Minshull Street Crown Court jailed Indrid Hysembelli for three years and seven months on 27 April 2026, after Xhoi Kasaj and Romeo Tosca had already been sentenced in March, over an 889-plant cannabis factory police found on Bilsley Street, Oldham, on 17 June 2025 and valued at £986,800.
In the early hours of Tuesday 17 June 2025 Greater Manchester Police forced entry to a heavily
secured industrial unit on Bilsley Street in Oldham.[1][2][3]Inside they found 889 cannabis plants
at various stages of growth, with an estimated potential street value of £986,800.[1][2][3]The
electricity supply had been illegally bypassed.[1][2][3]A small living area held four bunk beds, a
cooker, a fridge and a television showing live CCTV from outside; police called the conditions
extremely poor.[1][2][3]
Officers found Indrid Hysembelli, Xhoi Kasaj and Romeo Tosca, all of Albanian descent, hiding in the
loft and arrested them.[1][2][3]An investigation later turned up photographs of the men posing over
piles of cannabis.[1][3]
At Minshull Street Crown Court they were convicted of producing a Class B drug.[2][3]Kasaj, 30,
was jailed for two years and three months on 23 March 2026; Tosca, 26, for two years and eight
months the same day.[1][2][3]Hysembelli, 26, was sentenced on Monday 27 April 2026 to three years
and seven months.[1][2][3]
Photos and video
A man in orange gloves stands over a large pile of harvested cannabis inside the industrial unit.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)
