Investigators were alerted when, despite apparently being abandoned, the amount of power that it was using doubled, and the lights were left on at night.
When police visited the premises in Le Signano Palmia, near Parma in Northern Italy, they found 106 marijuana plants being cultivated. It is estimated that. When harvested, they would have produced 2 kg of marijuana.
Further evidence was obtained when Sartor was stopped in his car. There officers detected the same distinct odour that they had noticed in the cottage.
Whilst marijuana in Italy is legal for medicinal and industrial uses, it is strictly regulated. And whilst possession of small amounts of the drug for recreational use is regarded as a misdemeanour, and those found guilty can expect affine, the unlicenced cultivation of it is a different matter. That is illegal and normally punishable with imprisonment, as is the sale of marijuana-related products.
Now 46, Sartor was a defender who played for a number of top Italian clubs, including Juventus, Inter Milan, Parma, Roma, and Verona, He was also capped twice by Italy, making his debut in a friendly against Paraguay in 1998.
The latter stages of his career was not without controversy though. In 2006 was faced charges of aggravated assault against two police officers after an away match the previous year whilst playing for Genoa.
Then in 2011 he was arrested for his involvement in a match fixing scandal, along with a number of other figures involved in Italian football, whilst numerous clubs from the lower leagues in the country were also implicated.
He was subsequently banned from all football activities for five years.