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Cannabis producers told they face prison
THREE Sheffield men involved in a cannabis supplying plot have been jailed for a total of 13 years - with a city judge warning anyone involved with drug factories faces immediate custody.
Judge Robert Moore spoke out after jailing two brothers and one of their sons in connection with the discovery of two cannabis factories - one in a flat on Millsands in Sheffield city centre and another on Barber Road, Crookesmoor.
"Scarcely a day goes by without the discovery of a cannabis factory," he said.
"The police do their bit and the courts must help them. In my view everyone connected in any meaningful way must be sentenced to immediate custody."
Saadat Ali, aged 33, of Clough Road, Sharrow, set up and ran the cannabis factories, the court heard.
Judge Robert Moore accepted it was at "the behest of others" but jailed him for three years after he admitted conspiracy to supply cannabis.
The judge said he had been "seduced by a potentially glamourous lifestyle of a drug dealer and some local heightened status".
Ali also received two five-year jail terms for possession of firearms after a shotgun and pistol were found hidden behind the cooker hood in the Millsands drug den.
He was ordered to serve one of the five-year terms consecutively to the three-year-term imposed for the drug offence, meaning he was jailed for eight years.
Ali's 20-year-old nephew Mohammed Arsalan, of Charlotte Road, Sharrow, was sentenced to a year in a Young Offenders' Institute for his part in the plot.
He admitted conspiracy to supply drugs on the basis he was the "gardener" in the Millsands flat, tasked with growing the cannabis plants.
Ali's brother and Arsalan's father Mohammed Akhlas, 48, also of Charlotte Road, was jailed for three years after admitting five money laundering offences.
He was described in Sheffield Crown Court as the "banker" for the operation.
In one bank account he had access to police found over 100,000 and in another there was over 18,000.
When police raided his home they found a briefcase containing nearly 9,000 in cash.
Akhlas was also jailed for nine months for perjury and three months for possession of a fake taxi badge to operate in Sheffield city centre.
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
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Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
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