Inside the Wolverhampton cannabis factory where gardener tried rooftop escape from police
These photos show the scene at a cannabis factory as police raided it earlier this year.
Meta Alban was jailed at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Tuesday after being found at the site on Reliance trading estate on Livingstone Road, Bilston.
The Express & Star joined police in the swoop on February 21, which resulted in the 33-year-old being arrested after trying to escape via the roof and a 30-minute stand-off with officers as they tried to coax him down.
Photos and video from inside the factory show some of the 681 plants which had a street value of £252,000. The factory was so big officers needed a drone to fly around the premises as their high-tech eyes and ears among the forest of cannabis plants.
Stihl circular saws were used to breach the building's entrances; all the while, screaming for possible inhabitants to "get on the floor!".
On entry to the unit, more than 10 rooms filled with cannabis plants were uncovered.
As the officers moved aside a plastic drape covering a hidden entrance, they were greeted with the first smell of cannabis and the sight of the living quarters that the growers were forced to use.
Those inside were told to "keep away from the walls" on entering the building, due to them being covered in wires, plugs, extension leads and a range of other electrical devices.
Scenes of squalor filled the main living quarters where a cooking station, a cleaning facility, a range of coats and four beds were tightly packed together, only fuelling officers' estimations of the possibility of forced labour.
As officers entered the hallways of the building, a network of intricate corridors, each one with walls adorned with plugs and transformers, and each wall being connected to at least one extra room filled with countless cannabis plants were seen.
Speaking on the day of the raid, Chief Inspector Kelly Monaghan told the Express & Star about the severity of the drugs operation.
She said: "We are here this morning in Bilston where we executed a drugs warrant on a number of factory units and discovered an extremely large cannabis grow and we have one person in custody.
"We discovered a number of factory units with extensive wiring throughout, there are a number of segregated areas where we have some mature cannabis plants and some areas where we have seeds.
"There is a whole set-up to supply to a very high extent. We also discovered that people have been living here, there are makeshift beds, food and a washing machine, and lots of clothing, it is obvious that someone has been living here and maintaining these plants."
On Tuesday Alban, of High Street, Cradley Heath, was locked up for 15 months,
Prosecutor James Purser said: "We accept the defendant was just part of the operation and not those who set up the sophisticated operation."
Curtis Myrie, defending Alban, told the court his client was down on his luck when he accepted a job 15 days before the police raid.
He said: "He quickly realised, this live-in job was not what he had hoped for. He has family back in Albania and understands the mistake he has made. All he wants to do now is go back home to Albania."