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A trail of misery, orchestrated by the so-called Albanian Connection, is 'fuelling our knife crime problem'
By Oliver Harvey, Chief Feature Writer in Tirana, Albania
7th May 2019, 12:51 amUpdated: 8th May 2019, 1:08 pm
THE sight of them is not unusual – but what they are looking for is.
As I boarded a packed Albania-bound flight at Gatwick last week, a posse of Border Force officials and sniffer dogs were carefully screening passengers.
Border Force are on the look out for drug money as Albanian crime groups’ prominence is increasing
As the queue tailed back through the terminal, officers declined to say what they were looking for — but these dogs have been trained to sniff out money. DRUG MONEY.
For suitcases stuffed with the millions that are generated by Britain’s cocaine users are being couriered to the Balkan nation by air, land and sea.
It’s the final stage in a trail of misery, leading from the coca fields of the Amazon to Britain’s streets, orchestrated by the so-called Albanian Connection.
In Albania, cocaine cash is lavished on high-end property and flash cars, feeding corruption and damaging the rule of law.
In Britain the cheap, high-purity cocaine has fuelled the knife crime epidemic and the county lines drug-dealing phenomenon.
Little wonder that Albania — a tiny nation of around three million that is desperate to join the EU — is now at the forefront of the UK’s fight against organised crime.
BLOOD FEUDS
Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) says the Albanian crime groups’ prominence is increasing and they are expanding their influence upstream.
Chain-smoking cigarettes in a Tirana bar, a local prosecutor told me how his countrymen cornered Britain’s £5billion cocaine market.
He said: “They went straight to the source — South America. They became wholesalers and cut out the middle men.”
Albanian mobsters then teamed up with the ’Ndrangheta — the most powerful Italian Mafia franchise — who have insiders at some of Europe’s busiest sea ports.
High-purity cocaine arriving in Belgium and the Netherlands in shipping containers from South America then continues its journey to Britain.
Once here, the cocaine is pushed by street dealers and enforcers such as the self-styled Hellbanianz.
Based in Barking, East London, the brazen Albanian foot soldiers have shown off their guns, cash and flash cars on social media.
'READY FOR WAR'
In one rap video released by the group in October they insisted they were “ready for war”.
In 2016 three of the street gang were jailed for a total of 42 years after a police operation discovered £6million of drugs and a Skorpion sub-machine gun with a silencer.
One of those jailed, Hellbanianz leading light Tristen Asllani, who is serving 25 years, posted photos from his Wandsworth jail cell insisting that the only thing he missed was “whores”.
London's Hellbanianz show off their guns, cash and flashy cars on social mediaINSTAGRAM
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London's Hellbanianz show off their guns, cash and flashy cars on social media
British police are having some success in their investigations - cops uncovered Albanian godfather Erald Mema's multi-million-pound UK-wide cocaine networkTHAMES VALLEY POLICE
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British police are having some success in their investigations - cops uncovered Albanian godfather Erald Mema's multi-million-pound UK-wide cocaine network
Another Albanian cocaine baron, Klodjan Copja, was caught and is now serving 17 years in a UK jailMET POLICE
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Another Albanian cocaine baron, Klodjan Copja, was caught and is now serving 17 years in a UK jail
The Albanian business model has seen the price of a kilo of uncut cocaine in Britain fall from more than £45,000 five years ago to about £30,000 now. The coke is sourced for around £3,800 a kilo in the jungles of Colombia.
Albanian crime reporter Artan Hoxha told The Sun: “The crime groups are based on family connections and trusted friends from the same home town in Albania.
“Everyone knows each other’s families, wives, kids, which acts as a guarantee — betray the group and revenge will come next.”
Blood feuds — tit-for-tat slayings between rival clans that can last decades — still erupt here.
Artan, 45, added: “The system means that when police arrest the foot soldiers they struggle to find the big players. No one talks.”
Everyone knows each other’s families, wives, kids, which acts as a guarantee — betray the group and revenge will come next.
Artan Hoxha
However, British police have had high-profile successes. When cops raided Albanian godfather Erald Mema’s British underlings they discovered £560,000 in cash, 10kg of cocaine, two 9mm pistols and a loaded Smith & Wesson revolver.
The 33-year-old crook had flitted between Britain and his homeland as he ran his multi-million-pound UK-wide cocaine network.
A history of strife
THE story of Albania includes a long struggle for freedom from more powerful neighbours.In 1912 rebels declared independence from the Ottoman Empire, then in 1939 it was seized by fascist Italy in World War Two.With Italy and Germany defeated, in 1946 the country turned communist, becoming the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania.Only in 1990 did Albania develop a democratically elected government.It is now a Nato member and has applied to join the EU.
WARRING CRIME FAMILIES
“Criminal organisations like yours are generating harsh violence using weapons and knives.”
Another Albanian cocaine baron, Klodjan Copja, liked to drive a blood-red Ferrari through the streets of home town Elbasan when he returned from Britain.
For three years cops took out Copja’s couriers and foot soldiers who helped to flood London, Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham with £150million of coke.
He was finally caught using a fake passport on the Greek-Albanian border and is now serving 17 years in a UK jail.
Elbasan has been blighted by warring crime families whose tentacles stretch to the UK.
Many Albanians reach Britain using false papers or pay around £12,000 to sneak across the Channel in the backs of lorries.
Artan Hoxha says the crime groups are based on family connections which act as a guarantee - 'betray the group and revenge will come next'JAMIE LORRIMAN
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Artan Hoxha says the crime groups are based on family connections which act as a guarantee - 'betray the group and revenge will come next'
Agron Morina says that more and more people are leaving for Britain as 'there’s no jobs here'JAMIE LORRIMAN
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Agron Morina says that more and more people are leaving for Britain as 'there’s no jobs here'
In Albania’s beautiful north eastern region of Has, as many as 10,000 of the 25,000 population have decamped to the UK.
In the remote town of Krume, builder Agron Morina told The Sun: “People leave for Britain every day. This is a ghost town now.”
As we stood talking in the town’s main drag, seven flash cars with British plates — including top-of-the-range Mercedes, a BMW and an Audi A7 — drove past.
Dad of three Agron, 46, spent three years working as a plasterer in Stratford, East London, after arriving in the back of a lorry.
AUTOMATIC RIFLES
He said: “There’s no jobs here. I can get £60 a month in benefits. In the UK I was earning as much as £500 a week as a plasterer.”
Not all take regular work, like Agron. The £12,000 fee for a place in a lorry means some end up working for gangs to pay it off.
People leave for Britain every day.This is a ghost town now.
Agron Morina
Others, such as Fari Lleshi, drift into drug dealing. Nicknamed 2gunz, Lleshi arrived in Britain after serving six years for a £20,000 bank heist in Italy.
He said: “Like all Albanians, I came in a truck. There is no other way to travel to England.”
Originally from Kukes, less than 20 miles from Krume, he worked as a plasterer in Britain and tried to launch a career as a rapper — boasting in one song of having cocaine in his blood.
Heavily tattooed Lleshi, 29, was sentenced to three years in the UK for possession of Class A narcotics with intent to supply.
He was deported back to Albania earlier this year.
Cocking a snook at the authorities, in March he released a bling rap video on YouTube, brandishing two hand guns, while others stood behind with AK-47 automatic rifles. A disclaimer stated all the weapons were replicas.
Like all Albanians, I came in a truck. There is no other way to travel to England.
Fari Lleshi
He said: “They are built with criminal assets. Dirty money is destabilising Albania.”
Crime bosses can buy their way out of prison and politics has been infected by drugs cash. But Albania is trying to fight back.
Vast cannabis plantations here have been eradicated. A Special Prosecution Office, SPAK, is being set up to probe organised crime and high-level corruption.
British law enforcement has forged a partnership with its Albanian counterparts to battle the gangs.
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