Albanian drug lords infiltrating Britain
Leak of secret papers shows they arrive as illegal migrants
A MAJOR leak of secret files has exposed how Albania is in the grip of dangerous criminal gangs feared to be infiltrating Britain as illegal migrants.
Albanian government documents plundered by hackers show police lost track of 17,000 criminals as its justice system became ‘backlogged’ by the scale of illegal activity.
Secret talks between the UK and Albania on stamping out organised crime and illegal migration are also disclosed in the documents, seen by The Mail on Sunday.
It comes as the Albanian prime minister accused the British Government of discriminating against Albanians to distract from its ‘policy failures’.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has hit back, promising initiatives to stem the flow of illegal cross-Channel migrants, 42 per cent of whom are Albanian.
Thousands of files – many marked ‘Sensi tive’ and including detailed intelligence briefings and emails from prime minister Edi Rama – have been leaked in a highly embarrassing diplomatic incident. The files reveal:
● 100,000 ‘suspects’ are allegedly on the Albanian police system, including some convicted after illegally entering the UK to establish vast drug networks;
● British officials were so afraid the nation was falling behind in the fight against mobsters they offered to genetically profile a backlog of 17,000 Albanian criminals;
● The names, locations and contact details of Albania’s intelligence agents have been made public in a ‘catastrophic’ security breach;
● One Albanian drug lord illicitly purchased property in the UK under the name of a British-Albanian relative;
● Albanian mobsters plotted assassinations ‘with a hunting rifle’, including the prime minister of neighbouring Kosovo.
Intelligence experts last night described the leak as a ‘devastating blow’ and warned it could set back efforts to tackle Albanian organised crime by years.
The massive data haul was stolen from Albanian government computers in July and has been released gradually online, with the latest disclosure last Wednesday.
Albania has accused Iran of being behind the attack and last month cut diplomatic ties and expelled Iranian embassy staff following a joint investigation with the FBI.
The number of Albanian migrants arriving on Britain’s shores has swelled in a record year for smallboat crossings. More than 12,000 Albanians – between 1 and 2 per cent of its adult male population – have arrived so far this year.
Among the disclosures is a file titled ‘Suspects’ containing more than 100,000 people, complete with mugshots, that the hacking group claims was taken from the Albanian police database – although authorities deny this.
Albanian opposition leader Sali Berisha said this disclosure has informed crime bosses they are under surveillance and they will already be fleeing the country.
The Mail on Sunday has verified that the names of many of the most high-profile Albanian drug kingpins to have operated in Britain are included in this list.
Contained in the files are tip-offs from informants to security services that expose how the tentacles of Albanian organised crime have extended to Britain.
One tip-off reveals an ‘Albanian drug lord’ has bought property worth millions of pounds, including ‘many properties’ in the UK, in the name of his Albanian-British uncle. The uncle, it adds, ‘is dangerous and carries weapons at all times’.
British efforts to crack down on illegal immigration and crime in Albania are also listed in the files.
This includes a formal arrangement to shore up the port of Durres, the largest in Albania. Officials from Felixstowe port travelled there as part of that agreement.
The leaked cache includes a draft agreement to clear an alleged backlog of 17,000 DNA samples from people detained and arrested in Albania since 2018 that needed to be added to an online database as a ‘matter of urgency’.
Perhaps the most damaging leak is a 16-page document detailing the names, passport information and phone numbers of members of Albania’s state intelligence service SHISH, the equivalent of MI5.
Also contained in the files are the names of officers from the National Crime Agency, Britain’s version of the FBI, in Albania attempting to combat organised criminal gangs.
Philip Ingram, a former colonel with British military intelligence, said: ‘These leaks are a devastating blow not only for Albanian security services, but also our own lawenforcement agencies.’
The Home Office said it did not comment on leaks, while a spokesman for the Albanian government disputed figures mentioned in official documents as ‘totally madeup numbers’.