Police smashed drugs factories
Nov 17 2007 by Chloe Griffiths, The Journal
A WELL-ORGANISED drugs gang rented isolated farmhouses in rural Northumberland to set up a series of sophisticated cannabis farms.
The group chose remote cottages and farm buildings where they could set up a commercial enterprise, growing hundreds of plants without detection.
But the four gang members were caught after intelligence led to police monitoring the ringleader, mother-of-three Leanna Smith.
They watched the 33-year-old visit a string of farmhouses in the region, dropping off fertiliser, lights and drug paraphernalia, and meeting a associates, including frontwoman for the operation Nazelin Bullici.
Glen Gatland, prosecuting at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday, said: “This was a sophisticated, professional operation by Leanna Smith and Nazelin Bullici, aided by the other two, to produce a significant amount of cannabis. Each location was a similar construction and they showed a high degree of preparation for the cultivation of plants.
“The prosecution say it was the intention of the group, either together or singularly, to make a sustained and substantial profit from the growing of cannabis.”
Mr Gatland told the court that over a four-month period, officers watched the gang as they set up a string of farms.
He told how mother-of-two Bullici had about £10,000 at her disposal to rent the properties, under the pretext of being a property developer.
But the whole time she was stocking the houses with plants and drug paraphernalia.
Police mounted their first raid at Cresswell Farm Cottages, Cresswell, Northumberland on October 30, 2006, where officers found 74 mature plants in five separate growing areas, with a street value of nearly £3,000.
The raid led to the arrest of accomplice Neil Carr.
Smith, of Coxlodge Terrace, Newcastle, and Bullici, of Kent, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cultivate cannabis. Smith also admitted possession of a prohibited weapon. They were both sentenced to 15 months in prison.
Carr, of Cresswell Farm Cottages, Cresswell, was given a 12-month sentence suspended for two years and ordered to do 250 hours unpaid work after Judge Guy Whitburn heard he had been paying off a drug debt from a previous conviction.
Scott Jobson, of Vine Street in Wallsend, North Tyneside, was ordered to do 300 hours unpaid work, after the court heard he had helped Smith.
