Yahoo News How keen-nosed cop sniffed out huge cannabis factory inside derelict Beverley restaurant
A keen-nosed police officer who suddenly noticed a "very strong pungent" smell of cannabis as he was driving along a road has revealed how his instinct to investigate led to the discovery of more than 350 cannabis plants, worth a potential £395,000, inside a derelict restaurant.
He scaled up scaffolding outside the disused restaurant at North Bar Without, Beverley, before climbing inside and discovering the huge scale of the secret cannabis factory across six rooms.
It was being overseen by the boss of a popular Beverley restaurant that was just around the corner but the cannabis factory could be reached by a connecting door in the storeroom and kitchen area of the Istanbul Restaurant in nearby Wylie's Road.
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Rakip Karanxha was jailed for five years after he secretly masterminded the huge cannabis factory at a derelict former Thai restaurant very near to his own premises.
He pretended that he knew nothing about the cannabis plants "next door" or the elaborate lighting, fans and filter system that had been set up there.
Karanxha, 45, of Butterfly Meadows, Molescroft, Beverley, denied being concerned in producing cannabis on December 15, 2021 but he was convicted after a three-day retrial at Grimsby Crown Court. He previously stood trial at Hull Crown Court in May but the jury in that trial was discharged after it failed to reach a verdict.
A retrial was originally scheduled to be held at the Hull court in January next year but the case returned to court much quicker than expected when a slot for it became available at Grimsby.
The plants had a potential street value of about £395,000 and there was dried cannabis worth about £2,680. Karanxha was betrayed by a telltale fingerprint found on a light bulb inside the cannabis factory.
Mobile phone records showed that he was in regular contact with a "gardener" living inside the hidden cannabis operation – but Karanxha brazenly claimed that he "didn't even know what cannabis was" and that he knew "nothing".
The police officer, PC Matthew Collier, told the Hull trial that he was on duty with two colleagues in Beverley and they were driving along Wylies Road at about 11.30am. "There was a strong smell of cannabis from the immediate area," he said. "It was as we were approaching the junction of Wylies Road and North Bar Without, in that vicinity.
"Cannabis, particularly, has a very strong pungent smell. For me, it's quite overwhelming. For me, cannabis has got a strong, sickly sweet smell, particularly when it's at the growing stage."
Despite it being December at the time, the smell was still "particularly pungent" from the area involved. "That smell was quite in your face," he said. His reaction was: "Where's that coming from?"
PC Collier told the court: "There's an old Thai restaurant that's derelict. It has been empty for quite a long period of time." The upstairs windows of the former Sawadee restaurant were covered but there was scaffolding outside the building.
He used that scaffolding to climb up to the top and have a closer look. There was a window, which was partially open, and he was able to look through.
"That window had some heavy-duty plastic sheeting and a light source coming from within that," he said. "We were able to move that sheeting and could see the budding of what was cannabis plants."
The police smashed the window so that they could "drop down" inside the third-floor room where there were cannabis plants." They went inside the building at the top and went down to the second floor. An Albanian man was seen and detained.
The police had to force their way out of a door and other officers got inside the premises from downstairs at the front.
"We had a very quick look in other rooms and noted that they were being used for growing cannabis or being readied to use for growing," said PC Collier. "The electricity had been bypassed."
An access door between the former Thai restaurant and the Istanbul Restaurant was found at the rear of the Istanbul's kitchen and storeroom area. Karanxha was later spoken to and he was asked if he knew anything.
"He wouldn't tell me his last name," said PC Collier. "He wouldn't give me his full details."
Stephen Robinson, prosecuting, said that numerous cannabis plants were growing inside the former Thai restaurant and there was equipment, including transformers and heat lamps.
"Standing in the hallway was a male, who appeared surprised to see the officer," said Mr Robinson. "That male was detained and arrested." He was later identified as an Albanian man and a mobile phone was seized from him. The man was later jailed for one year for producing cannabis.
The former Thai restaurant contained a "significant cannabis grow" over several rooms. There was a mattress on the floor in one area, the former restaurant's ladies' toilets.
The area was used as living quarters by the Albanian man, who was the "gardener" for the cannabis plants. Harvested cannabis from 123 plants was hanging and drying out on wires from the ceiling.
There were 30 growing cannabis plants in another room and, on a landing, there were 130 young plants in an incubator.
Another room was set up to grow cannabis plants but it did not contain any of them in there. Dozens of lights, transformers, filters and fans were in the various areas. Two nursery incubators were on the third floor landing and there were four more rooms with cannabis plants. In another room were 22 plants, with another 34 plants and equipment in another area.
"The electricity meter on the ground floor had been tampered with and the cannabis grow, some of which had been harvested, would have yielded a significant amount of cannabis in the region of 40kg," said Mr Robinson.
On the ground floor of the former Thai restaurant, there was, at the rear, a door which was near the Istanbul Restaurant. From the Istanbul side, that door was accessed by the rear of the kitchen at the Istanbul and it led into the Sawadee restaurant.
The door was bolted on the Sawadee side. It gave access and exit to and from both premises. "On the Istanbul side, crates were stacked up against that door," said Mr Robinson.
A fingerprint from a light bulb in one of the ex-Thai restaurant rooms was found and – "very significantly" – it matched the fingerprints of Karanxha.
The mobile phone seized from the Albanian man included messages exchanged with Karanxha. Police arrested Karanxha on February 18, 2022. His phone was seized. It showed telephone calls and WhatsApp messages between the two men.
One of the messages from Karanxha said: "You have the cigarettes at the door." This was a reference to cigarettes left for the man on the Istanbul side of the connecting door. "This defendant was looking after his gardener," said Mr Robinson.
During police interview, Karanxha denied any involvement in the cannabis grow. "He went so far as to say that he didn't even know what cannabis was," said Mr Robinson.
"The defendant could not really explain what his fingerprint was doing on the bulb. He knew full well what was going on next door. His fingerprint was on the bulb."
During his defence evidence, Karanxha admitted that he did know the man who had been found inside the disused Thai restaurant. But he claimed that this was merely because the man came in to the Istanbul Restaurant asking about work there. Karanxha claimed that he told the man: "You can do pot washing."
Karanxha claimed in court: "That's all he did for me. He was doing this for three days. After three or four days, I never saw any more of this guy."
He claimed of some of the telephone calls that were exchanged between them: "I tried to tell him to come back to work. That's all I was ringing him about, not anything else. Just for work.
"He said: 'I need a job'. That's all. He came in the restaurant and said he was looking for a job. He was doing cleaning in the restaurant and doing some washing up. I asked him the phone number so I can tell him whenever I need him."
When Karanxha was asked about his fingerprint being found on the light bulb in the former Thai restaurant, he claimed: "I don't know how it got on the lamp." He denied ever going into the area where the cannabis plants were found.
"I have never been inside," he claimed. "I didn't know nothing. I don't remember touching nothing. I have never seen it in my life."
