Three men have been sentenced over their part in a multi-million pound cannabis growing operation where they fooled landlords into letting them manage properties.
The trio ran property management companies that were linked to an investigation into 75 cannabis farms in residential properties producing cannabis with a street value of more than £4.5m.
The crime was uncovered by police in an ongoing campaign to tackle organised crime in the Harehills area of Leeds.
The three men convicted had been identified as operating property management companies that secured some of the properties from legitimate landlords by offering to manage them, but instead allowed organised crime group members to set up large-scale cannabis grows.
Officers from the Leeds East Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) identified the criminal enterprise as part of their proactive work under the ‘CommUnity Harehills’ project.
Over a series of raids at addresses in the area, the team seized 7,636 plants amounting to 458kg of cannabis.
In March last year, officers executed warrants in Leeds and carried out arrest enquiries in Coventry, resulting in the men and a fourth man being detained. They were subsequently charged with conspiracy to produce a Class B drug and acquiring, using or possessing criminal property.
At a hearing at Leeds Crown Court in January this year, Mirel Neatu, Marius Nedelcu, and Seyan Debnath pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of permitting premises to be used for the production of a controlled drug contrary to Section 8a of the Misuse of Drugs Act in relation to some of the properties involved.
No evidence was offered against the fourth defendant and he was acquitted.
They were sentenced at Leeds Crown Court this week.
Neatu, aged 37, of Brackenwood Drive, Leeds, was sentenced to 32 months in prison; Nedelcu, aged 40, of Signet Square, Coventry, was jailed for 28 months; and Debnath, aged 48, of Lupton Avenue, Leeds, was given a suspended 21-month prison term, with 300 hours of unpaid work and a 12-week night-time curfew.
Inspector Alastair Nicholls, who heads the Leeds East NPT, said:“These men have been convicted over their roles in providing properties for crime gangs who were producing millions of pounds worth of the drug on an industrial scale. These activities also caused substantial financial loss to the legitimate landlords who had to repair their properties from the extensive damage caused.
“We painstakingly built up an evidential picture of the involvement of these men as part of an operation that will have dealt a significant blow to this criminal trade that impacts negatively on the local community.
“We hope this latest success will provide some reassurance to the people in the community and also send a clear message to those involved in this type of crime that Harehills is not somewhere where they can commit these offences without facing the consequences.
“Under the CommUnity Harehills initiative, we will be continuing to work closely alongside our partner agencies to ruthlessly pursue and disrupt all forms of criminality which cause harm in the local community.”
This article is taken from Landlord Today