Three jailed after former nightclub converted into cannabis farm

Three men caught working at a cannabis farm inside a former Aberdeen city centre nightclub have been jailed.

Albanians Thodlhori Llambro, 31, Sandri Hodaj, 36, and Amarildo Gockaj, 36, admitted producing drugs worth more than £850,000 at Dee Street in August last year.

More than 1,000 plants were found inside the building, which was the former Pearl Lounge nightclub.

They were each jailed for two years at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.

Fiscal depute Andrew McMann said police went to building after intelligence was received that it was being used to grow cannabis.

There was a strong smell of the drug, and a constant droning noise, consistent with fans being used in production.

He said officers found a "large-scale" cultivation spread over two floors.

Two of the men were found in growing rooms emptying pots of soil, and a third was asleep. It appeared they were living there.

McMann said a total of 1,023 cannabis plants were found, with a maximum value of £859,320.

Alannah Comerford, defending, for Gockaj, said he had come to the UK illegally by small boat in the hope of work opportunities to try to help pay for medical bills facing his mother back home.

Andrew Orbiston, for Hodaj, said he had been in debt to those who had transported him to the UK in a lorry on a ferry.

John Hardie, for Llambro, said he had been used as "cheap labour" by those behind the cannabis operation.

Hardie added his client wanted to apologise for his conduct, which he described as a "serious error".

Sheriff Morag McLaughlin said the only option for the men was a custodial sentence.

She said it had been a "very substantial commercial operation".

The sheriff said the sentence would have been three years, but reduced it to two years due to the guilty pleas.