The man jailed after drugs bust at former Pembroke pharmacy

Amarildo Daja was arrested at the scene when police raided at the former Lloyds Pharmacy building – which had been left vacant – on Main Street in Pembroke at around 10am on Friday, October 18.

Inside, officers found around 575 cannabis plants growing across three rooms on the first floor, and Daja pleaded guilty to being concerned in the production of cannabis.

Judge Geraint Walters sentenced him to 12 months imprisonment.

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Swansea Crown Court previously heard that Daja tried to flee when police arrived at the address, but went back inside when he saw the officers and “hid inside the ceiling”. The police got him a ladder, and he came down and was arrested.

Prosecutor Harry Dickens said it appeared Daja had been living there to tend to the cannabis, and the electricity had been tampered with in an attempt to avoid detection.

Police seized two mobile phones in the raid, however one had been wiped and the other had been damaged.

Police raided the now-vacant former Lloyds Pharmacy in Pembroke. (Image: Google Street View)

A drugs expert estimated that the plants could have produced a yield of between 15 and 45 kilograms of cannabis, which would have had a potential street value of “between £170,000 and just over £500,000”.

In his interview, 27-year-old Daja told the police he had paid a criminal gang to smuggle him in to the UK by lorry. He had worked in London for a time, but was not earning enough to pay his debt off to the gang, so agreed to move to Pembrokeshire and work at the cannabis farm three months prior to his arrest.

“The defendant is realistic about receiving an immediate custodial sentence,” said Caitlin Brazel, in mitigation.

She said his offending was “a mistake that he never intends on again repeating” and was “somewhat out of character for him”.

“He is disheartened to have tarnished his good character,” she said.

Amarildo Daja has been jailed after being caught after a drugs bust at a former Pembroke pharmacy. (Image: Dyfed-Powys Police)

“If we want to bring down the Albanian criminal gangs that set up cannabis factories, we are going to have to find the ringleaders rather than just those who arrive on the back of a lorry,” said Judge Walters.

“I’d have thought the first thing I would want to know as a policeman is who is the owner, and how do you get your rent paid?”

He added: “Whether you will be deported upon your release is a matter for the Home Office, not for me.”