Two Polish men extradited to NI jailed for drugs offences

Two men from Poland who were extradited to the North last March after a fingerprint of one of them was found on a cannabis plant six years ago, have both been jailed for 16 months at Derry Crown Court.

The defendants, Lukasz Kalicki, 42, from Claragh Hill Gardens in Kilrea and Kryztof Kapinski from Glendhu Crescent in Coleraine both pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis plants at various locations in Antrim, Coleraine, Kilrea and Maghera which were found following police searches of a number of properties in October 2018.

Following the discoveries both men returned to Poland before they were extradited to face charges of cultivating cannabis and dishonestly using electricity.

The court heard that the investigation started when the landlord of a rented property in Antrim reported to the police that he'd discovered a large amount of cannabis plants in his property. On one of the plants police forensic officers found Kupinski's fingerprint. 

A few days later the police received reports of two men, the defendants, acting in a strange manner in public in Maghera. When the police approached them they detected a strong smell of cannabis. 

Both men were searched and a small amount of cannabis was found on them before the police, in follow-up searches, found what Judge Neil Rafferty KC described as cannabis cultivating farms at a number of addresses linked to the defendants.

Judge Rafferty said both men were involved in "a reasonably professional mid-sized operation, a significant operation and an operation of some considerable scale. The reason why this case did not proceed until today is that both men absconded to Poland before they were extradited back to Northern Ireland for sentencing. I accept it was not a high end criminal operation but it was a professional undertaking by them".