Two jailed over 700-plant cannabis farm in Shoebury industrial unit
Endri Metaj, 40, was jailed for 20 months after Essex Police found more than 700 cannabis plants in an industrial unit in Terminal Close, Shoeburyness, in April 2025. A 25-year-old man dealt with in the same case was jailed for 35 weeks the next day; the court ordered the plants and equipment destroyed.
🇬🇧 Terminal Close industrial estate, Shoeburyness, Essex · United Kingdom
Officers from the Southend Local Policing Team and Southend CID raided an industrial unit in Terminal Close, Shoeburyness, on 15 April 2025 and found more than 700 cannabis plants at various stages of cultivation.[1][2]The unit on the industrial estate had been set up as a sophisticated large-scale grow, with lighting systems, fans and mobile phones found at the scene.[1]Endri Metaj, 40, was arrested in the raid.[1]
Sentences
Metaj was charged with being concerned in the production of cannabis and pleaded guilty shortly before his trial was due to begin at Basildon Crown Court.[1]On 26 September he was sentenced to 20 months in prison, ordered to pay a £187 victim surcharge, and the court approved the forfeiture and destruction of the plants and related equipment.[1]A second man, aged 25, admitted producing cannabis before Southend magistrates the day after the raid and was jailed for 35 weeks.[1]
Photos and video
Rows of cannabis plants inside the Terminal Close industrial unit raided by Essex PolicePhoto 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)
