A CRIMINAL has been teaching English to 30 fellow Albanians prisoners while be held on remand in custody.

Anduen Spahiu, 20, was caught with more than 10kg of cannabis after he and fellow defendant Relos Havalja, 26, had been growing the drugs in Caerphilly.

The pair had arrived in the UK illegally and had been put to work by gangsters at a house in Bedwas cultivating a cannabis crop.

Alexander Greenwood, prosecuting, told Newport Crown Court that police acted on a tip-off on January 31 and went to Tydfil Road.

They stopped the defendants after they spotted them getting into a taxi.

Officers found two bags of cannabis in a Ford Transit van as well as fans and electrical equipment.

Mr Greenwood said: “It is the prosecution’s case that a cultivation procedure had been set up and the defendants were arrested following the harvest.

“The total amount of cannabis recovered were in excess of 10kg with a street value of between £40,000 and £52,000.

“Officers attended an address of Tydfil Road and carried out a search.

“They found the remnants of cannabis cultivation, including tarpaulins covering windows and floors, leftover cannabis leaves and general paraphernalia including a ventilation system.

“It was sophisticated in its nature.”

The defendants, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis with intent to supply and producing the class B drug.

Harriet Ealdon representing Spahiu said: “The defendant was trying to pay off a debt for his entry into the country.

“He's now being imprisoned for approximately seven months and seven days and in my submission, he's put his time on remand to good use.

“The defendant has partaken in courses and he is a peer mentor in the prison – that shows that he is a trusted individual within the prison.

“He's been able to greatly improve his English to the extent that he works as a teaching assistant within the prison helping to teach an English class to 30 Albanian nationals within the prison.

“And he explains that he is also assisted members within the prison with interpretation.”

Matthew Roberts for Havalja told the court: “These men were used and abused by those above them in the chain.

“They have no money and no means.”

Judge Matthew Porter-Bryant told the defendants: “This was a significant and large operation yielding significant sums.

“It would be naive to suggest you had no awareness or understanding of its scale.”

Spahiu was sent to a young offender institution for 11 months and Havalja jailed for 13 months.