Arait Dishani, 28, was found hiding inside a secret cannabis farm in Tipton after police raided an industrial unit at Imex Business Park on Fisher Street, Dudley Port. The farm contained 220 cannabis plants, estimated to be about five weeks old, with a potential street value of £220,000. Dishani, who admitted production of a controlled drug of class B, was jailed for 27 months at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Wednesday, August 5.
Police Raid and Discovery
Police acted on a report that cannabis was being grown within one of the units at the business park. During the raid on November 30, 2025, officers found 220 cannabis plants spread across five rooms. They also discovered ventilation and lighting equipment, and noted that the electricity had been bypassed, prosecutor Mohammad Hafeez told the court.
Dishani was found hiding in one of the rooms. His fingerprints were later found on electric fans, a Coke can, and black bin bags. When asked in his police interview what he was doing at the unit, Dishani replied, "I'm staying".
Previous Conviction and Motive
The court heard that Dishani has an "identical previous conviction" for cultivating cannabis. He was jailed for nine months at Leicester Crown Court in October 2024 and released from prison in February 2025, with his licence period ending in May 2025. His latest crime was committed just six months after that licence period ended.
Mr Hafeez said Dishani had "some understanding" that the cannabis set-up was an "operation capable of producing significant quantities for commercial use". Dishani, who was assisted in court by an Albanian interpreter, said he only tended to the plants to support his mother with her medical bills in his native Albania.
Defence and Sentencing
Skaal Sidhu, defending, said the "main reason" Dishani got involved with the cannabis farm was to support his mother's medical bills in Albania. As the only child of his parents, there was "pressure" on Dishani to "assist in some way", Mr Sidhu said. He added: "This was not a case of him making great amounts of money for a lavish lifestyle. This is by no means an excuse but a bit of background of why he is committing this offence."
Mr Sidhu said there "was clearly a wider operation", adding: "He is a man who has a limited amount of English and is very much the classic sort of person who is there staying at the premises, overseeing it, as it were."
Dishani, of no fixed abode, "expresses great remorse and regret", the court heard. He "understands the severity of what he has done" and now "his main motivation is to go back to Albania". Mr Sidhu said Dishani has "already approached the immigration services" about returning to his homeland, adding: "He has no intention of staying here anymore."
Sentencing, Judge David Perry said: "Because of the previous conviction, you knew what you were doing was wrong and you knew the scale and what it involved." No details of the value of the cannabis plants were given in court, but each mature cannabis plant in the UK is thought to have an estimated street value of £1,000.
