Drug dealer jailed after hiding secret cannabis farm behind a living room cupboard door

Published 26 October 2026, 16:34

• Marius Dardha, 33, got 16 months after police found 250 plants in his hidden Ashford grow rooms
• Officers caught him fleeing into the garden during an August raid linked to organised crime
• 'The only door he will now see will be the one to a prison cell,' said DC Heather Walkden

A drug dealer who hid a secret cannabis farm behind a living room cupboard door has been jailed for 16 months.

Marius Dardha, 33, hid one of his grow rooms behind false walls at a property in Riverbank Way, Ashford, with the space accessible only by squeezing through a living room sideboard cupboard.

Dardha, an Albanian national of no fixed address, was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court on Tuesday 20 October after admitting a charge of production of cannabis in court.

The operation was uncovered when officers investigating serious organised crime executed a warrant at the Riverbank Way property on Tuesday 4 August.

As police entered through the front door, Dardha made an attempt to flee via the rear of the property, heading toward the back garden, but officers who had been positioned there intercepted him and he was arrested.

Inside the property, five separate rooms had been modified to produce cannabis, including the secret room hidden behind the false walls.

Around 250 mature plants were seized from the house.

An examination of Dardha's phone uncovered photos and videos of the plants, with the evidence pointing to his role in the supply of the class B drug dating back to September 2025.

Detective Constable Heather Walkden, the investigating officer, described the scale of the alterations made to the house.

"In the house, there were a lot of adjustments to create these illicit grow rooms, and any other space seemed to be used for cultivation waste storage," she said.

The property was left in a poor condition as a result, and the tampered wiring posed a danger beyond its walls.

"As a result, the house was in a poor state and the bypassing of electrics to run the cultivation could have posed a serious safety risk for the neighbours as well," Walkden said.

She added that such operations feed wider criminality: "Cultivations such as these are created to help fund serious crime and overall has a noticeable detrimental impact on the wider community."

The hidden room did not stay hidden for long once officers were inside.

"Officers are skilled at locating such cultivations, so quickly found the hidden room behind the sideboard's cupboard door," Walkden said.