Two Albanians have been jailed after a £500,000 cannabis farm straight out of Guy Ritchie‘s The Gentlemen was unearthed by police hidden in an underground bunker.
Gjergivatal Pjeter, 33, and 31-year-old Eldoh Sylaj pleaded guilty to being involved in producing the Class-B drug after police uncovered a secret cannabis farm at a rural site near Wolston in Warwickshire earlier this year.
Pjeter, of Birmingham, and Sylaj, of Maidstone in Kent, were each jailed for 22 months on Monday, October 26, following a hearing at Warwick Crown Court.
Both defendants were also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £187, while the court instructed the destruction of the cannabis.
Five people were arrested when officers raided the drug den on August 19, but only Pjeter and Sylaj were charged.
Dramatic bodycam footage revealed the moment police discovered the cannabis plants being cultivated in underground rooms located beneath the site.
Two men have been jailed following the discovery of a £500,000 cannabis farm hidden in an underground bunker
The cannabis plants were cultivated in underground rooms located beneath the rural site
Police bodycam footage showed how the hidden drug den was accessed through a hatch which was cut into the floor of a shipping container
Albanians Gjergivatal Pjeter (left) and Eldoh Sylaj (right) were handed 22 months in jail after they pleaded guilty to being involved in producing cannabis at a secret drug den in Warwickshire
Guy Ritchie pictured with actor Matthew McConaughey in a ‘cannabis factory’ on the set of The Gentlemen
Theo James and Kaya Scodelario (pictured) star in The Gentlemen, a hit Netflix spin-off inspired by Ritchie’s film
The hidden den was accessed through a hatch which was cut into the floor of a shipping container, concealing the illegal operation below.
The set-up mirrored the plot of Guy Ritchie’s 2019 film The Gentlemen, starring Hugh Grant and Matthew McConaughey, in which drug gangs built cannabis farms beneath the estates of aristocratic landowners.
The movie inspired a hit Netflix spin-off starring Theo James, Kaya Scodelario and Giancarlo Esposito, with Season Two released in September.
A Rugby Police spokesman said: ‘Our officers discovered a cannabis grow worth an estimated £500,000.
‘The warrant turned up an underground grow not dissimilar to something from Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, with an entry hatch in an inconspicuous shipping container on the surface.’
