Dealer told he must stay, for now

7:00am Tuesday 5th August 2008

AN ILLEGAL immigrant who ran a cannabis factory from a Swindon house has been told he will have to wait until at least November before he can be deported.

Julian Shaquiri, of Crawford Close, Freshbrook, volunteered to be deported back to Bosnia Herzegovina when he first appeared in court in February, but yesterday a judge ruled he would have to stay in prison until four co-defendants have been tried for conspiracy to cultivate cannabis.

Shaqiri was arrested after police raided a house in the quiet Upper Stratton cul-de-sac, Kipling Gardens in February. He has spent almost six months waiting behind bars for deportation. Police found a drugs factory capable of making hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of potent skunk cannabis at the address, with plants filling the living room and three bedrooms.

Upper Stratton beat officer PC Kirsty Wilson said the operation could have turned over £250,000 a year.

Shaqiri has pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cannabis.

Rob Ross, defending Shaqiri, yesterday asked Judge Simon Darwall-Smith at Bristol Crown Court to sentence his client for his crimes and allow him to be sent home.

Mr Ross said: “He was first arrested on February 11. He wasn’t charged in connection with anyone else. “He was granted bail on April 17, but he was not released, because the Home Office had already been involved to serve a deportation notice.

“This meant he would remain in the position where bail has been granted but he couldn’t leave the court.

“It seems to me, he has sat in prison having served almost the equivalent of a 12-month sentence.”

Mr Ross explained that his client’s case was only linked to the seven others accused of conspiracy to run Swindon cannabis factories in May.

Dang Loan, 19, also admitted her part in the conspiracy, and asked to be deported back to Vietnam, when she appeared at Swindon Crown Court in June.

Loan, of Lambeth, South London, will also have to wait until November before hearing when she will be sentenced and deported. By then both Loan and Shaqiri will have spent nine months in British jails.

Albanian Artan Veliu, 31, of Torun Way, Haydon Wick, and Vietnamese Thanh Nguyen, 25, of Birmingham also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce cannabis. Despite the pleas to be deported, Judge Darwall-Smith said: “It would be wrong to sentence anybody before verdicts in respect of those persons who have pleaded not guilty.”

Albanian brothers Elis and Aurel Kollabani, of Brunel Crescent, Mustafa Duka, and Vietnamese Thi Nguyen, both of Birmingham, all deny conspiracy to produce a controlled class C substance between August 2007 and February 2008. They are due to return to Bristol Crown Court for a three-week trial in November.