How police used a can of Heineken and a lightbulb to catch cannabis farmer behind £2m drug factory

Ardit Pali, 25, was linked by forensics to factories at Warboys Industrial Estate, in Warboys, near Huntingdon, on 2 May, 2021, and Sandy Industrial Estate, in Sandy, Bedfordshire, the following month. Credit: Cambridgeshire Police
Ardit Pali was jailed after cannabis factories with an estimated £2m of the drug were discovered. Credit: Cambridgeshire Police

Fingerprints found on a beer can and a lightbulb allowed police to link a cannabis farmer to factories containing drug harvest which could have been worth £2m.

Ardit Pali, 25, was linked by forensics to factories discovered in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire in May and June 2021.

The first of the huge complexes - in Warboys near Huntingdon - had 19 growing rooms, containing 1,674 cannabis plants thought to have a value of between £461,000 and £1.38m. 

The second, in Sandy in Bedfordshire, was similar, with 15 rooms and a total of 882 cannabis plants estimated to be worth between £249,690 and £740,880.  

Thousands of cannabis plants were found at warehouses in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. Credit: Cambridgeshire Police

At the Warboys warehouse, Pali’s fingerprints were found on several light bulbs, while at Sandy, his DNA was found on numerous bulb boxes and a Heineken beer can.

On Tuesday at Peterborough Crown Court, Pali, of no fixed address, was sentenced to 20 months in prison, having pleaded guilty to two counts of producing a controlled class B drug.

Det Con James Campbell said: “Drugs are a stain on society and cause so much harm to people who use, as well as law-abiding people who suffer from associated crime and anti-social behaviour.

“I am pleased that Pali has now been served justice and can reflect on his crimes.” 

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