Cannabis factory gang locked up as crackdown on drugs and organised crime continues

Three men responsible for the production and sale of more than 200kg of cannabis have been locked up.

All three were sentenced after trial at Stafford Crown Court on Thursday 28 March, ending a successful 18-month covert investigation by officers from our major and organised proactive team.

Between July 2018 and June 2022, the men were part of a group that set up ‘professional cannabis grows’ in Burton-upon-Trent and at various locations in the north west of England and supplied wholesale quantities of the Class B drug to dealers.

All three were found guilty of conspiring to supply a class B controlled drug and were sentenced to:

Banirjan Hoxha, 41, from Swadlincote – five years and four months  

Lee McCarthy, 36, from Sutton Coldfield – four years and four months

Jamie Loxley, 36, from Tamworth - two years

Throughout the operation our officers gathered intelligence on the defendants, who were seen visiting their production sites and meeting with ‘gardeners’ housed at the locations to look after the crop.

In June 2020, we raided a cannabis factory controlled by Hoxha in Burton-upon-Trent. Inside the property, on Eton Road, officers found 70 cannabis plants in the loft with a street value of around £38,500.

This followed an earlier seizure of 227 cannabis plants from the boot of van linked to the men. People known to be involved in drug supply were also seen visiting McCarthy’s home address in Tamworth, which acted as the ‘distribution hub’ for the operation.

In June 2022, our work culminated in the execution of warrants at the homes of Hoxha, McCarthy and Loxley.

During the search of Hoxha’s address, in Derbyshire, officers found a box containing £88,910 in cash wrapped in bundles in a hollowed-out marble table in the living room.

Meanwhile, a search of McCarthy’s Tamworth property revealed a substantial quantity of cannabis in two five-litre boxes hidden under a staircase, several sets of digital scales, vacuum sealed bags with cannabis strain flavours written on them and blocks of cannabis resin.

Nearly £100,000 in cash, a motorbike and Rolex watch also recovered as part of our investigation are subject to a Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) hearing on Friday 21 June.

Welcoming the sentencing, Detective Inspector Timothy Boulton, from major and organised crime, said: “This case serves as a warning to anyone involved in the supply of drugs in Staffordshire that we will take all of the necessary steps to ensure those responsible for this criminality are stopped and dealt with.

“This is another great result as we continue to proactively target cannabis grows and serious organised crime across the whole of the county. It should also serve as a reminder to the public that the drug’s cultivation is often linked to sophisticated criminal networks where there are high levels of serious and dangerous criminality.”

We launched Operation Target in May last year and have been working with other police forces to disrupt and pursue criminals who plan, organise and commit serious criminal offences across the county, including drug supply, illegal firearms, knife crime, human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

We also continue to proactively target those involved in drug cultivation across Staffordshire, as part of our Operation Levidrome commitment.