The new Godfathers of British cannabis farms
Gangsters from Albania flaunt ill-gotten gains
ALBANIAN gangsters are flaunting the proceeds of sophisticated UK cannabis factories by posting pictures of them and the cash they are making online.
These images, posted on websites in Albania, show cannabis being grown and harvested on an industrial scale inside properties said to be in London.
Alongside the photos, criminals are bragging about the amount of money they are making through the illegal operations before sending the cash to be laundered back in their home country.
One gangster can be seen posing in front of hundreds of fully grown marijuana plants which would have a street value of several
‘Hundreds across the country are involved’
thousand pounds, covering his face with a freshly harvested crop. Other pictures show huge amounts of harvested cannabis buds and criminals, with faces obscured, posing with bundles of sterling notes.
Albanian gangsters have largely taken over the UK’S cocaine trade by undercutting rivals through direct contact with Colombian drug cartels and Italian mafia gangs who help smuggle it through Europe.
But there has been a more recent explosion in prosecutions of Albanian cannabis farmers across the country in the past few years as the Albanian mafia has also taken over the trade from Vietnamese organised crime gangs who were the first to set up large-scale operations in specially converted rented warehouses and houses.
In 2017 the number of Albanians who were reported in the media for being sentenced for involvement in growing cannabis in the UK was 34.
By 2018 and 2019 there were around 50 a year, but from January to September this year there have already been 88 sentences reported.
An Albanian criminal based in London, who is involved in producing the drug, explained how his fellow countrymen were setting up rival operations.
He said: “It is not a few big Albanian bosses who control the cannabis growing business. There are hundreds of Albanians across the country, especially in the Birmingham area, who are involved.
“The bosses have an invisible role and no direct contact with the cannabis boys based in the factories.
“They just give orders and finance op operations on multiple houses.
“They keep a low profile in the Al Albanian community.”
He said the best cannabis seeds were sourced from the Netherlands. The man said: “One way they get th the properties is by presenting to the la landlord fake EU passports or just by telling the landlord the real reason fo for taking the house and offering h him double the rent to allow it.
“It is grown in just 40 days and a house can produce up to 15kg of cannabis a time, depending on how big it is.”
With a harvested crop of powerful s skunk weed selling on for up to £4,300 a kilogram, large amounts of money can be made if the operation goes undetected, allowing several grows. The criminal added: “Only the foot soldiers have been arrested. The organisers are free to enjoy the money made by this lucrative business.”
He said rival gangs who did not have the patience to set up a factory would pay up to £3,000 for tip-offs within the Albanian community about when a crop was ready to be harvested, and break in and steal it.
It has led to many violent confrontations and there is the added risk from fires as growing equipment has been illegally rigged on to mains electricity.
Albanian father-of-three Margaritis Xhindi, aged 43, died in June after the cannabis factory he was locked in at Brierley Hill, Dudley, caught fire.
He had been smuggled into the country and made to work there.
Many “growers” are recruiting people from the village of Lazarat in southern Albania, where cannabis is regularly grown, even outdoors, with police paid bribes to ignore it. Most of those taking the most risk living and working in the cannabis farms have been smuggled into the UK and are made to grow the drug to pay off that debt.
The source said: “Big Albanian bosses are using desperate young people from Albania who pay up to £13,000 to get on the back of a lorry into the UK illegally.
“They are given promises to make quick money in order to pay the debt off, but sometimes they risk their lives inside the cannabis factories and end up with nothing.”
The cannabis factory situation in the UK has not gone unnoticed in Albania.
Ralf Gjoni, an MP in the Albanian Parliament, said: “One aspect of Albanians getting involved in drug production in the UK is that those who make it into the country are often poor and less qualified Albanians who arrive without a visa, through illegal means.
“Because of a lack of paperwork, they feel obliged and are easily lured into this lucrative and illegal business.”
The Met Police said it was actively monitoring social media for evidence of cannabis farms and other organised crime.
Lynne Owens, director general of the National Crime Agency, told police chiefs last week that the fight against drugs gangs from overseas also involved in people smuggling and the associated violence remained one of its key priorities.
She said that two-thirds of all murder suspects in the UK were either drug users or dealers.