Albanian crime group ran huge cocaine racket in Harrogate, court hears

An Albanian organised crime group ran a cocaine and cannabis racket in Harrogate potentially worth millions, a court heard.

The mega-money conspiracy involved “kilo blocks” of cocaine and cannabis being transported between London and Harrogate where the drugs were sold on the street, a jury at Leeds Crown Court was told yesterday.

Prosecutor Katherine Robinson said the conspirators, mostly Albanian nationals, were also thought to be involved in a £1.5 million cannabis farm in Rochdale which was connected to the Harrogate operation.

Yesterday, Kole Lleshi, 54, of Hargrove Road, Harrogate, Gavin Woodley, 44, of Ashfield Road, Harrogate and Allaman Tatariku, 25, of Penhale Road, Portsmouth appeared for the first day of their trial after they each denied playing a part in the wider conspiracy.

The gang’s ringleader, former Harrogate restaurant worker Ermal Biba, 38, had already admitted his part in the lucrative drug plot, along with Kladji Lleshi, 23, of Kinloss Court, London, Dritan Lleshaj, 53, formerly of Spring Mount, Harrogate, and Adam Sarkowski, 41, formerly of Wedderburn Close, Harrogate.

Biba, of Trafalgar Court, Harrogate, admitted conspiring to supply cocaine and cannabis between June 2019 and May 2022.

Ms Robinson said Biba was the lynchpin between two distinct conspiracies in which, after his first foot soldiers were arrested, he recruited three others, namely Kladji Lleshi, Tatariku, Woodley and Sarkowski.

She said the first conspiracy involved Biba, Kole Lleshi and Dritan Lleshaj, who had also admitted, and been jailed for, possession with intent to supply cocaine and cannabis. Lleshaj was deported to his homeland.

‘Dealer lines’

Biba was released under investigation following his initial arrest in May 2020 for the first conspiracy but then recruited another group of conspirators and continued operating “dealer lines” in Harrogate run by an “organised-crime group”, added the prosecuting barrister.

Kole Lleshi was arrested and admitted his part in the drug operation by transporting a kilo of cocaine from London to Harrogate in September 2019. However, he denied being involved in the wider conspiracy.

Ms Robinson said police surveillance officers had been tracking Biba, Lleshaj and Kole Lleshi during the first conspiracy in 2019.

They recorded Biba and Lleshaj “meeting regularly” and were monitoring their whereabouts when, in September 2019, Biba arranged a “drug run” which involved Kole Lleshi driving to London and bringing back Class A drugs to Harrogate.

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Biba was in contact with an unknown man in London from whom Lleshi was ostensibly to collect the drugs, added Ms Robinson.

A few weeks later, Biba sent Kole Lleshi a text message saying: “We go tomorrow.”

The following day, Lleshi set off for London again in a Kia vehicle, ostensibly for a drug pick-up, and returned to Yorkshire where he was stopped by police on the A1 near Doncaster. During a search of his car, officers found a kilo block of high-purity cocaine in a plastic bag wrapped in a sock. The drugs had a “wholesale” value of £25,000.

The following day, Lleshaj was arrested after meeting Biba in a Harrogate restaurant. Lleshaj was found with £419 in cash and five wraps of cocaine.

He told police he was homeless, but they found the keys to his house in Spring Mount and searched it. They found “various quantities” of cocaine and about £2,000 cash.

High-purity cocaine

She said Woodley played the role of “facilitator” in the conspiracy by allowing the gang to supply drugs from his rented house in Ashfield Road, where they found 264g of high-purity cocaine and two large “vacuum packages” of cannabis worth up to £11,000.

Biba, Lleshaj, Tatariku and Kladji Leshi were said to be regular visitors to this property where police also found “debt lists”, cash, digital weighing scales and hydroponic equipment for growing cannabis.

Woodley was subsequently arrested at his then home in Fairfax Avenue, Harrogate, where police found a small amount of cocaine and cannabis and a torch-like stun gun.

Ms Robinson said Greater Manchester Police raided an industrial unit in Rochdale in March last year when they arrested two Albanian men after they found a large cannabis grow on an “industrial” scale.

Those two men admitted cultivating cannabis at the factory which had an estimated harvest of 144 kilos with an estimated “street value” of £1.5 million. Ms Robinson added:

“(Police) surveillance had been carried out and members of the organised crime group in Harrogate regularly visited this industrial estate in Rochdale.

“ANPR (cameras) showed Mr Biba’s vehicle travelling in that direction and Kladji Lleshi and Allaman Tatariku’s phones showed they travelled down the M62 from Harrogate to Rochdale.”

Woodley’s red Transit van also made journeys to Rochdale, said Ms Robinson.

Biba, Kladji Lleshi and Sarkowski all admitted their part in that cannabis conspiracy. Tatariku said he was involved in the supply of cocaine and cannabis but that he was not involved in a conspiracy with other people.

Woodley said although he was the tenant at the Ashfield Road property, he “couldn’t remember” the name of the landlord and “knew nothing” about the drugs found there. He denied playing any part in drug supply but said he knew Biba, with whom he worked in Harrogate restaurants.

The trial continues.

Man ordered to pay £1 for role in £500,000 Harrogate cannabis racket

An Albanian drug conspirator involved in a half-a-million-pound cannabis racket in Harrogate has been made to pay back just £1 to the public purse and is apparently “nowhere to be found”.

Andi Kokaj, 23, was part of a London-based gang which conspired with former Harrogate guest-house owner Yoko Banks to set up three lucrative cannabis factories in affluent streets.

He was jailed for three years in August last year for being concerned in the production of cannabis.

At a financial confiscation hearing today at Leeds Crown Court, judge Tom Bayliss KC ruled that Kokaj would pay a nominal fee of £1 after the prosecution said he played a “minor” role in the criminal enterprise.

Prosecutor Michael Bosomworth said the gang had converted three of Banks’ properties on Alexandra Road, Woodlands Road and Somerset Road near Harrogate town centre into cannabis farms with potential yields of up to £456,000. The gang made an estimated £345,000 from the drug plot.

However, Kokaj, played a “lesser role” and was paid just £80 a day for his part in the conspiracy and so made a financial gain of £1,120, added Mr Bosomworth.

He said that Kokaj, from London but of no fixed address, had no assets.

Mr Bayliss KC duly made the nominal £1 order due to Kokaj’s limited financial means.

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Kokaj didn’t attend the confiscation hearing and the court heard he was “probably nowhere to be found”.

When he was sentenced last summer, he was told he would only have to serve half of the three-year sentence behind bars, less the time he had spent on remand, which means he is likely to have been released from jail.

Yoko Banks case adjourned again

Banks, 74, of Scargill Road, Harrogate, was also due to face financial confiscation today but her case was adjourned yet again for the service of financial documents setting out her complex web of assets and properties.

Earlier this year, the former B&B boss and property tycoon failed in her bid to have her conviction quashed after being convicted of three counts of being concerned in the production of cannabis.

Yoko Banks

Yoko Banks

The court heard the disgraced pensioner was the “facilitator” for the Albanian gang’s cannabis-cultivation enterprise.

Her six co-conspirators, Kokaj, Visar Sellaj, 33, Kujtim Brahaj, 50, Indrit Brahaj, 27, Bledar Elezaj, 36, and 31-year-old Erblin Elezaj, were jailed for a combined 22 years for various offences including drug supply and production of the highly potent skunk cannabis in August 2021.

Banks, who rented out her three properties to the gang to convert into cannabis farms, was jailed for three-and-a-half years and is due to be released from New Hall women’s prison in West Yorkshire on December 31, halfway through her sentence.

At a previous adjourned confiscation hearing, Mr Bosomworth said that Banks owned a string of “highly marketable” properties in some of Harrogate’s most desirable areas.

He added, however, that her “complicated accounts and property empire” were proving to be a major sticking point in the ongoing financial investigation.

On that occasion, Banks claimed she had no money because it had been frozen in her bank account. She said, however, that she had “a lot” of assets.

Ringleader made £438,000

Mr Bosomworth said that Sellaj, the gang’s ringleader, had made £438,000 from the cannabis-cultivation enterprise and that he had £76,000 in the bank which he could pay back into public coffers.

At a contested financial confiscation hearing in May, it was found that Indrit Brahaj had jointly benefited from the criminal enterprise to the tune of £133,328. In his case, a confiscation order of £24,082 was made.

Kujtim Brahaj was found to have benefited to the tune of £1,194. The judge made a nominal confiscation order of £1 in his case due to limited financial means.

The prosecution said that Banks rented out her properties to the “professional” drug gang for “industrial” cannabis production “in the expectation of significant profit”, though she had no part in the actual cultivation process.

Their mega-money plot finally unravelled when police were called to a five-bedroom villa owned by Banks in September 2020 after reports of a “disturbance” in the street involving what appeared to be two rival gangs vying for the cannabis farm.

Banks, who had previous convictions for health-and-safety offences through her work, was due to be paid at least £12,000 a month in rent for use of the three properties and was also receiving “high” deposits, said Mr Bosomworth.

Her final confiscation hearing was adjourned to January 6 next year to give her defence counsel time to provide evidence that some of the bank transfers to her account were “legitimate”.

Ringleader Sellaj’s financial confiscation proceedings were adjourned for a full-day hearing to determine the amount of cash available to him.

 

 

 

Ex-guest house owner from Harrogate, 73, jailed for three-and-a-half years

An Albanian drug gang who ran a half-a-million-pound skunk-cannabis factory in quiet residential streets in Harrogate have been jailed for a combined 22 years.

Their “facilitator” was 73-year-old former guest-house owner Yoko Banks, who rented out her properties for “industrial” cannabis production “in the expectation of significant” profit”, Leeds Crown Court heard.

The disgraced businesswoman, who owns a string of “highly marketable” properties in some of Harrogate’s most desirable areas, is now starting a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence.

She and the six Albanian gangsters appeared for sentence on Friday after they each admitted playing a part in the audacious drugs plot worth at least half a million pounds.

Prosecutor Martin Bosomworth said the “professional”, London-based gang had invested tens of thousands into the three cannabis factories at Banks’s properties on Alexandra Road, Woodlands Road and Somerset Road near Harrogate town centre.

The brazen criminals had even dug a trench outside the three-storey Edwardian villa on Alexandra Road through which they fed electricity cables to the house to power the “highly sophisticated” cultivation system and bypass the electricity grid.

On one occasion, neighbours in the affluent street spotted the gang digging the ditch underneath a pavement and up the driveway. When they asked them what they were doing, they were told they were laying cables “for a fast-fibre broadband connection”.

The gang’s audacious plot finally unravelled when police were called to the five-bedroom villa at about 8.30pm on September 26 last year after reports of a “disturbance” in the street involving what appeared to be two rival gangs vying for the mega-money cannabis farm.

Crossbow found in house

Officers found 283 plants in the four growing rooms inside the mock-Tudor house, which was fitted with CCTV cameras. Chillingly, police also found “large” crossbow and arrows next to the front door. The plants had a potential yield of up to 21 kilos.

Mr Bosomworth said the “organised” gang had operated the lighting, electrical and “security” systems remotely through broadband technology and were even able to watch a “live feed” of the drugs bust over the internet.

There were other large grows at two of Banks’s other properties which had the “capability of producing industrial amounts” of the highly potent skunk.

She had rented the properties to the Albanians through an “unidentified individual who goes by the name of Francesco”, who sub-let the houses to the gang’s ringleader Visar Sellaj, 33, in the spring or summer of 2020.

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Sellaj, Kujtim Brahaj, 50, Indrit Brahaj, 27, Bledar Elezaj, 36, Andi Kokaj, 23, and 31-year-old Erblin Elezaj, an illegal immigrant, admitted various charges relating to the production and supply of cannabis but only at the Alexandra Road property.

Banks, of Scargill Road, admitted three counts of being concerned in the supply of cannabis.

Cannabis worth £300,000 found in van

Mr Bosomworth said that just before the “disturbance” on September 26, two unidentified men turned up at the property in a Citroen van and forced the door open. They left the property “carrying bundles of vegetation to the van”. He added:

“An Audi was (then) seen to arrive in the street from which five males exited – these being the Albanian defendants.

“They chased the Citroen through the street, but the van made off.”

Following the run-in with what appeared to be a rival gang, and realising they’d been rumbled, the six Albanians went into the property and “made a hasty clearance of such mature cannabis plants as they could find”.

They loaded the plants into a rented Transit van which was then driven, along with the Audi, back down south.
Police found the remaining 283 plants in the growing rooms and a “large, loaded crossbow” next to the front door.

The Transit van and the Audi were “trapped” on the M1 by police in Hertfordshire and were finally stopped on the M25 just after midnight.

Police found 30kg of “saleable”, harvested cannabis plants inside the van worth about £300,000.

Inside the £26,000 Audi SQ5, which belonged to Sellaj, police found £3,675 cash and an 18-carat-gold Rolex watch worth £28,000.

‘Industrial’ operation

The court heard that on September 22, four days before the drugs bust, Sellaj — who had a “large amount of money” in his bank account — booked a four-star B&B at the historic Arden House on the quiet, tree-lined Franklin Road.

As well as the 283 plants at the Alexandra Road factory, there were also 143 “root balls” from previous harvests and 6kg of cannabis flower buds. The “industrial” operation would have yielded between 11kg and 33 kilos worth up to £330,000.

A total of 59 cannabis plants, worth up to £83,000, were found at Banks’ Somerset Road property and 86 plants, with a “bulk value” of up to £62,000, were discovered at the house on Woodlands Road.

The total potential yield of the 395 plants was 45 kilos, with a combined value of up to £456,000. This was in addition to the 30 kilos found in the vans and did not include previous harvests.

Although Banks was not involved in the cultivation, she had played a “facilitating” or advisory role in the plot. She was in “regular communication” with ‘Francesco’ and Sellaj through Whatsapp messages and constantly “pressing to be paid by them”.

Banks, who had previous convictions for health-and-safety offences through her work, was due to be paid at least £12,000 a month in rent for the three properties and was also receiving “high” deposits.

‘Supplementing her pension’

Benjamin Whittingham, for Banks, said she had let out the properties to “supplement” her weekly pension due to financial pressures.

Indrit Brahaj, of Whitings Road, Barnet; Kokaj, of no fixed address; Sellaj, of Newnham Road, London; and Erblin Elezaj, of no fixed abode, all admitted being concerned in the production of cannabis and possessing a Class B drug with intent to supply.

Kujtim Brahaj, of Wellington Road, Enfield, and Bledar Elezaj, of no fixed address, each admitted being concerned in the production of cannabis.

Defence counsel for the Albanian men said they had each been working in construction or “odd jobs” in the south.

Importing crime to Harrogate

Judge Tom Bayliss QC said the “organised crime group” had “cynically chosen to import a criminal enterprise to Harrogate.”

Sellaj, who had been “directing operations”, was for six years and nine months.

Erblin Elizaj was jailed for five years and two months and Indrit Brahaj was jailed for four years and four months. Kujtim Brahaj and Bledar Elezaj were each jailed for three years for their lesser roles.

Jailing Banks for three-and-a-half years, Mr Bayliss told her:

“You have in your time been a successful businesswoman.

“You were, at the time, in some financial difficulties (which) may explain why you were – a woman in your seventies, a widow with a number of health problems – prepared to get involved with a gang from London.

“You knew that by doing that you were bringing drugs and criminality to Harrogate, a town where you have lived and worked for many years.”

Andi Kokaj, the last remaining defendant to be sentenced, will learn his fate on Monday, August 16.