Albanian man jailed after police unearth £900,000 cannabis farm in Eyemouth
And a round-up of some of the other cases calling at Selkirk Sheriff Court...
Last updated 26th May 2025
A 47-year-old Albanian man found by police during a raid on a cannabis farm in Eyemouth has been jailed for 14 months.
Police estimate the illegal cultivation - unearthed in a unit on an industrial estate in the town's Coldingham Road - to be worth around £900,000.
Adriatik Abazi had previously pled guilty to a charge of producing a controlled drug in the Marnic Seafoods building between November the 18th and 28th last year.
Selkirk Sheriff Court today (Monday) heard the owner of the unit grew suspicious as the windows to the property had been boarded up and the rent had gone unpaid.
Abazi, who was found inside with the cultivation, informed police through the use of an interpreting phone service that he was "told to water the plants."
His solicitor, Ed Hulme, explained his client - who worked in the construction industry in Italy, where he has lived from a young age - had flown to the UK to visit a friend when he overheard some people speaking his native language in a London pub.
After a few drinks, he introduced himself and, after more alcohol was consumed, agreed to go with them to an unknown location.
Abazi said he was given a mobile phone with instructions on how to look after the cannabis plants and told, if he did so, his travel documents - which were kept from him - would be returned.
The court heard he was left unsupervised for long periods of time, during which he could have called for help.
As it was, he was in the building for 11 days before the police found him.
Mr Hulme added: "He doesn't feel a victim of human trafficking, but he does feel misled."
Sheriff Peter Paterson backdated the prison sentence to November 29th, 2024 when Abazi was first remanded in custody.
Woman, 78, appears in court in connection with cannabis farm near Earlston
A 78-year-old woman has appeared in court accused of drug dealing following the discovery of more than 200 cannabis plants at a farm in the Scottish Borders.
Rosemary Douglas - believed to be the oldest person in Scotland to be charged with being concerned in the supply of cannabis - is also accused of producing the Class B drug at her home near Earlston, and bypassing the electricity meter.
She was joined in the dock by two Vietnamese nationals - 40-year-old Trong Son Nguyen, of no fixed abode; and 23-year-old Van Quang Bui, from Edinburgh - after police discovered the illegal cultivation in August last year.
It's estimated the amount of drugs recovered had a street value of a six-figure sum.
All three pled not guilty to the charges when they appeared at Selkirk Sheriff Court today (Monday).
The case was continued to a further hearing at Jedburgh Sheriff Court on June 17th.
Serious and organised crime
A court's today heard a 50-year-old man from Galashiels got involved in transporting large sums of criminal cash to service his former partner's spiralling drug debt.
Jason Brown was caught with more than £10,000 in his Volkswagen vehicle after being stopped by police on the A7 - near to Melville Dykes Road, Dalkeith.
Selkirk Sheriff Court heard he had been put under surveillance as part of an operation targeting the supply of illegal substances in the Scottish Borders, which last year saw 37-year-old Chris Ferguson, also from Galashiels, jailed for seven-and-a-half years.
Brown, of Laidlaw Court, Galashiels, admitted agreeing with Ferguson, and others not known to the prosecutor, to do something that he knew or suspected, or ought to have known or suspected, would enable or further the commission of serious organised crime, in that he did agree with them to obtain, transfer and store quantities of money between various locations and to others.
He committed the offence at addresses at Coulter Avenue in Galashiels, Alloway Drive in Kirkintilloch, and elsewhere in Scotland, between March 15th, 2022 and June 2nd, 2022.
Brown's solicitor Ed Hulme said his client helped out of loyalty, but was just a small part of a much wider operation.
Sentence has been further deferred for a supplementary report. The case will recall at Jedburgh Sheriff Court on June 2nd, and bail has been continued meantime.
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