Three cannabis gardeners who say they were coerced into producing up to £2 million worth of the drug have been jailed ahead of their deportation.

When police raided a unit at the Haine Industrial Park in Ramsgate, a drone hovering over the complex captured Tom Doku, Arvaniti Ilirjan and Ervin Zenelaj scrambling to escape.

Canterbury Crown Court heard yesterday how the three men had been tending to more than 1,700 cannabis plants, spread across a sophisticated, nine-room grow site off Leigh Road, Newington.

Prosecuting the case, Peter Forbes said: “While police officers forced entry, these defendants were observed on drone footage escaping from the premises.

“Officers were directed to where they were hiding - in the gardens of residential properties nearby.”

Doku, Zenelaj and Ilirjan were taken into custody, while police explored the illicit factory.

There were concerns that the electricity supply to the building had been tampered with, so engineers from UK Power Networks also attended the scene.

“The unit had nine rooms, seven of which were being used to grow cannabis plants in fully equipped rooms, continued Mr Forbes.

“A total of 1,716 plants were located. The premises contained a kitchen and bedroom facilities.

“A report was obtained from a drugs expert. He gives his opinion that the evidence strongly indicates a commercial cannabis cultivation on an industrial scale.”

The expert found that if all the plants growing at the site had been tended to full-flowering maturity and successfully harvested, they would have been capable of producing a yield of between 47.6kg to 107kg of cannabis.

Sold in bulk, the revenue from this harvest would range from £166,600 to £856,800, said the expert.

“The same amount of cannabis when sold at street level to the end user will have a significantly higher value,” continued Mr Forbes.

“In this case, the range to be sold would be £480,480 to £2.16 million with an expected realistic value based in the upper end of this range.

“The crown submits that this was a large-scale cannabis grow, clearly set up and run by an organised criminal gang.

“The defendants submitted bases of plea - in essence they contend they were gardeners and the prosecution does not seek to dispute that assertion.

“They are all Albanian nationals, with no known fixed addresses in the UK.”

Mitigating on behalf of Zenelaj, 33, and Ilirjan, 43 - who both had no previous convictions - lawyer Paul Jackson said his clients were pressured to carry out the criminal cultivation.

“In relation to Arvaniti Ilirjan, he was threatened into carrying out the gardening,” said Mr Jackson.

“And for Mr Zenelaj, he did not want to do the job but was told: ‘If you escape, we will harm you’.

“They were both performing under pressure with no expectation of financial gain.”

Advocate John Connor defended Duko, who has a previous conviction for cannabis production and was on licence when he was arrested for these most recent crimes in May.

Mr Connor said the 48-year-old is a lorry driver by trade, but struggled to find legitimate work in the UK due to his immigration status.

“He has been in the country for about two years. He was hoping to get employment in the UK but his immigration status makes it impossible to do so, so his only legitimate employment was two months working in a car wash.

“He’s got a 21-year old son and 12-year old daughter. He does want to go back to Albania when he can.

“He appreciates there’s got to be a custodial sentence, but he just asks that it could be as short as possible.”

After briefly retiring to consider the sentences, Recorder Sarah Counsell addressed the defendants.

“The police recovered over 1,700 plants that were being harvested in an industrial unit with at least seven fully equipped growing rooms,” she said.

“The expert suggests the degree of equipment and the preparation of the rooms would have taken a high level of skill and knowledge and a substantial outlay by whomever was organising it - likely to be part of an organised crime group.”

The recorder took into account the difficulty the defendants would face in prison as foreign nationals who do not speak English but found that an immediate custodial term was the appropriate punishment.

Zenelaj and Ilirjan were each handed 13-month prison terms, while Duko will serve 21 months in custody.

“All three of you will have a concurrent sentence of imprisonment of six weeks,” added Ms Counsell.

“You will ordinarily serve half of your custodial terms before being released on licence.

“All three of you will also face automatic deportation - it’s likely that a decision will be made regarding that at the time that you are released on licence.”