An Albanian plumber and construction worker who came to the UK illegally took care of a large drug farm in Kettering to pay off traffickers' debts.
Fabrizio Zika and Elmaz Idriz were caught when police raided a home in the Headlands and found cannabis potentially worth up to £415,000.
Albanian citizens owed money to the gangs that had smuggled them into Great Britain and were told they would pay off their debts by taking care of the drug farms.
On Friday (June 21) the pair were each jailed for two years and four months after Northampton Crown Court heard the harrowing account of how they became involved in the underworld.
Zika, 27, and Idrizi, 38, were found in the attic at the back of the large, semi-detached house when police raided it just before 9am on May 23.
A search of eight rooms in the three-storey property where the pair lived led to the discovery of 488 cannabis plants, as well as electrical cables, lighting, heating lamps, sheets and ventilation in a sophisticated environment.