AN ALERT neighbour helped uncover a huge illegal drugs operation inside a former Wigton bank – crammed with cannabis worth £184,000.

The secret cannabis farm created inside the former Barclays Bank building on King Street was being operated on an “industrial scale,” Carlisle Crown Court heard.

The two illegal immigrants who were given the job of looking after the operation have been jailed.

The so-called ‘gardeners’ – 27-year-old Arnaldo Lleshhi and his co-defendant Xhuli Mezuri, 28 – pleaded guilty to producing the class B drug. Both were being “ruthlessly exploited”, the court heard.

Police raided the former bank on October 9 last year, discovering a sophisticated cannabis growing operation, complete with powerful growing lamps, hydroponic watering and feeding systems, and fans.

Inside nine rooms there were 460 plants of varying sizes, capable of yielding cannabis worth £184,000.

Tim Evans, prosecuting, outlined how a neighbour raised the alarm after becoming suspicious as he heard extensive work being done in the building after its sale.

The windows had been blacked out. “He could hear... the sound of fans running and the buzzing of electricity all the time.”

The man even resorted to “Famous Five style detective work” as he placed branches at the building’s rear exit to determine whether it was being used.

He recorded CCTV image of comings and goings.

When police raided the property, they recovered plants with a combined weight of 18.5 kilos. Lleshhi was inside the building and Mezuri was caught as he was leaving.

Also inside the property police found a makeshift living quarters for the two defendants, complete with a washer dryer, beds and a “well-stocked” freezer.

Sean Harkin, for Lleshhi, said he played an “extremely limited role”. Having amassed debt to the people who trafficked him he was “under pressure”, said Mr Harkin.

“They’re not likely to be very pleasant people,” said Mr Harkin, adding that Lleshhi had not previous convictions. Jon Close, for Mezuri, said the scale of the operation was “significant” rather than industrial. He said described the men’s living conditions in the bank as “squalor.” Both were “ruthlessly exploited”, said Mr Close. Recorder Simon Killeen said both men, who were illegal immigrants from Albania, had clearly understood the scale of the operation. “The operation was before their very eyes; they were living in it,” he said. He jailed Lleshhi for 18 months and Mezuri for 23 months.