POLICE discovered a huge £1.6 million cannabis factory in a disused Carlisle nightclub after passers-by reported the drug’s overpowering stench.

Nine rooms in the former Club XS at West Walls had been secretly converted into sophisticated growing rooms, complete with lighting, irrigation and feeding systems and a temperature control kit, all of it powered by stolen electricity, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

The smell of the class B drug was impossible to hide – despite the criminals smearing fabric conditioner around ventilation pipes in a bid to mask it.

At Carlisle Crown Court, two men who helped run the operation were jailed.

Iljar Jaho, 42, and Andiol Mucolli, 25, both of no fixed abode, admitted cannabis production.

Gerard Rogerson, prosecuting, said that police raided the property on October 12 after several members of the public raised the alarm due to the drug’s distinctive strong smell.

The defendants were arrested as they left the building.

Inside the former nightclub, officers found a “sophisticated and well-organised” growing operation, said Mr Rogerson.

As well as the large amount of elaborate growing kit, there were three rooms of accommodation for the “farmers” given the job of tending to the cannabis plants. There was also a fridge crammed with food.

“There were 1,692 cannabis plants in production,” said Mr Rogerson.

More than 170 plants had already been harvested.

The street value of the haul was put at £1.6 million.

When interviewed, Mucolli said he had lived in the former nightclub for the previous three months.

“He said he’d entered the country illegally,” said Mr Rogerson.

The younger man also claimed his family in Albania were “under threat”.

When arrested, both men had their passports and could not explain why they were free to come and go from the building as they pleased.

Jeff Smith, for Jaho, said he had worked on a market stall in Albania until Covid wrecked his livelihood.

Both men owed “substantial sums” to the people who trafficked them, said Mr Smith.

They came to the UK via Belgium, were taken to London and then on to Carlisle.

“Having arrived in Carlisle, where the operation had already been created, they were effectively tied to the building,” said Mr Smith.

The defendants claimed they were not paid for their work ­– a claim rejected by Judge Nicholas Barker.

The judge said: “Significant investment in technical equipment had been made to set up this operation. Those plants were capable of producing £1.6million worth of cannabis ­– a significant quantity for commercial use.”

He jailed both men for two years, commenting that both are likely to be returned to Albania when they are released.