These are the faces of just a few of the criminals who were put behind bars during February 2024 who hail from Northamptonshire or committed their crimes in the county…
9. Leonardo Capja
Capja was jailed after telling Northampton Crown Court he was trafficked to the UK by an Albanian criminal gang and forced to look after a Rushden cannabis factory to pay off a £15,000 debt.Police arrested the 25-year-old during a raid on a house in Ashby Drive, Rushden, in September 2023 which uncovered up to 120 cannabis plants and growing equipment.Capja later admitted the production of cannabis and was sentenced to 12 months in prison. Photo: Northamptonshire Police
10. Romarjo Kanaj
Kanaj was the 14th man jailed in connection with a wholesale drugs operation run from a Northampton coffee shop. The 27-year-old was a ‘trusted associate’ of Arber Alliu who used his business, Bar Café Milano in Wellingborough Road, as a front.Kanaj was involved in facilitating trips to both Milton Keynes and Devon for the purposes of supplying cocaine in huge amounts. He was sentenced to 12 years. Photo: Northamptonshire Police
11. Kevin Hughes
Hughes was jailed for two years, six months after pouring petrol through a letterbox and setting it alight. According to Nottinghamshire Police, the 40-year-old from Wellingborough admitted going to a house in Mansfield armed with a jerry can filled with fuel in July 2023. Hughes was arrested the following day, after being identified by the clothes he was wearing, his tattoos, and his ‘walking style’. Photo: Notts Police
12. Alger Cepele
Police found Cepele, 30, hiding behind some of 304 cannabis plants — with a street value of around £45,000 — found during a raid on a suspected drug factory in December 2023. He was sentenced to 18 months after pleading guilty to the production of a class B drug in connection with the swoop in Wellingborough.When quizzed by officers, Cepele provided a prepared statement stating he was an Albanian who had entered the UK illegally on the back of a lorry more than 18 months ago and was looking after the plants to pay off a large amount of money he owed to traffickers. Photo: Northamptonshire Police