Inside Britain’s Albanian Mafia: Using exclusive access to police intelligence files, STEPHEN WRIGHT uncovers the vicious gang violence and drug factories that experts worry are being fueled by an increase in unlawful Channel crossings.
At No. 18 York Road, Hartlepool, police discovered a cannabis cultivation worth nearly twice the value of the home they discovered it in, which is believed to have been searched nine times since 2015.
Investigations indicate that a vicious Albanian group controls a cannabis operation.
Albanian crime bosses are sending “clean skins” to the United Kingdom to join organized gangs.
The Edwardian terraced home in the Dyke House neighborhood of Hartlepool is in poor condition.
On a grim-looking street lined with boarded-up homes and properties with damaged windows, the neighborhood is claimed to be among the most impoverished in the United Kingdom.
However, until recently, behind the scenes at No. 18 York Road, business was thriving. In response to a tip, police discovered there last month a cannabis garden including 75 plants worth a total of £61,000 — nearly treble the home’s value of £32,000.
According to a local, the property has been raided nine times since 2015, with substantial quantities of cannabis plants being seized each time.
It may not have come as a surprise to detectives that cannabis was still being cultivated on an industrial basis at the location.
However, the identity of the young Albanian discovered tending the plants should have been known, as he had been deported after an earlier raid and had no right to be in the country.
In 2019, Ferbent Hoxha, age 22, was sentenced to three years near prison for operating a cannabis plantation in Derby. 200 plants with drugs with a street value of $140,000 were discovered in six rooms.
According to the sentencing court, Hoxha, who was illegally present in the United Kingdom at the time, played a “major role” in the “complex” cannabis operation despite being only 19 years old.
At No. 18 York Road, police responding on a tip discovered a cannabis plantation including 75 plants worth a total of £61,000 — nearly treble the house’s $32,000 value.
In spite of his subsequent deportation, he snuck back into the country to resume his illicit operations, this time in Hartlepool and at a cannabis farm in Leeds where his fingerprints were discovered on growing equipment in January.
This month, he was given an additional five years in prison.
Neighbors claim that the three-story, red-brick house in Hartlepool has long been a “full-time cannabis factory.”
A neighbor who did not wish to be identified stated, “It cannot be a coincidence that every tenant who has ever rented the property has been a cannabis farmer.” The only thing I know about the people renting it is that if you try to speak to them, they simply shrug and respond, “No English.”
The Mail’s inquiries showed that the property is owned by two individuals who reside in a gated community 330 miles away in Bournemouth. They were unavailable for remark.
However, Hoxha’s nationality suggests that this cannabis enterprise is handled by one of the increasingly brutal Albanian gangs who target the young and vulnerable in this country.
Today, with unprecedented access to intelligence files, government records, and expert analysis, the Mail can reveal the horrifying scope of Albanian organized crime in the United Kingdom and how these gangs are getting increasingly brazen and dangerous.
Our study comes as a record number of Albanians make the risky journey across the English Channel by boat to the United Kingdom.
Obviously, many legal immigrants come to the United States to work hard and contribute. However, according to intelligence assessments, between 40 and 60 percent of illegal immigrants who arrive on our coasts in small boats are Albanians. This week, it was revealed that more than 700 Albanians reached Britain in a single day through small boats.
These immigrants are not war refugees. Since more than twenty-five years ago, the country has been conflict-free. Many of them, wittingly or unwittingly, are bound for a life of crime, despite the fact that they come to this country in search of a better life.
This week, it was revealed that more than 700 Albanians reached Britain in a single day through small boats. (File image)
The Albanian crime lords are sending “clean skins” to the United Kingdom to join organized gangs. (File image)
Some Albanian migrants filmed TikTok recordings of themselves raising the country’s flag while crossing the English Channel.
The Mail revealed this week that Albanian crime lords are sending ‘clean skins’ to the United Kingdom to join organized gangs. This indicates that Channel entrants are not being screened for ties to organized crime groups.
Those who are brought here by organized gangs are inherently susceptible to recruitment into gangs, with many lured into serious crime to repay their obligations to people smugglers.
It is a highly disturbing image with enormous consequences for law enforcement in this area. Home Secretary Priti Patel is so anxious that she just reached an agreement with her Albanian counterpart to expedite the return of migrants. Next week, the strategy will be enforced, and some migrants will be deported within hours of their arrival.
According to the National Crime Agency (NCA), Albanian organized crime groups have swiftly grown their drug empires in the United Kingdom. Prior to this, they were mostly concerned with cocaine, a market they have dominated for the past five years. However, they have recently expanded into the mass production of cannabis, displacing the Vietnamese as the primary domestic growers.
In order to supplement the labor force for this labor-intensive operation, foot soldiers have been transported across the English Channel.
NCA research indicates that Albanian-organized crime dominates the cocaine market in the UK’s major cities and suburbs, with the exception of Merseyside, where a £1 million cocaine robbery is believed to be responsible for the terrible murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel this week. According to court documents, gangs are growing increasingly violent.
In a court filing from last year, it was indicated that threats and intimidation are the primary means of control. Although the older generation of Albanian organised criminals had been reluctant to carry out any form of violent retribution, kidnapping, or torture in the United Kingdom until recently, the younger generation of Albanian criminals is beginning to lose the older generation’s reluctance to do anything that would bring law enforcement agencies’ attention to them.
Fation Dauti, a known Albanian criminal previously identified only as B9 due to an anonymity order, was revealed to be the Bentley-driving Mr. Big in this particular decision.
According to the National Crime Agency, he was involved in currency smuggling and money laundering through the sale of costly vehicles to Albania and the “ownership and/or importation” of firearms. The paper said, “The NCA also examines B9’s involvement in large-scale hydroponics cultivation [of cannabis plants].”
Dauti, 37, was seen driving across the United Kingdom in a Range Rover, a Jaguar, and a variety of Mercedes and BMWs before being identified and shamed. An check of his records revealed that he had “virtually no financial turnover” in the United Kingdom, and his lavish lifestyle was believed to be sustained by the importation and distribution of illegal substances.
After his residence card was canceled in 2019, he was eventually recognized when he lost an appeal to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC). This followed Home Office and NCA claims that the gangster, who arrived in the United Kingdom at the age of 14, was capable of “extreme violence” and was “an influential member” of a London-based Albanian criminal network involved in cocaine importation, cannabis production, people-smuggling, and money laundering.
During the reign of terror in the United Kingdom, he stabbed a club bouncer three times in the ear. However, he was not punished for the incident in North London because his victim was paid to remain silent. Photos of the mobster with weapons, including a gun concealed in his trouser belt, a Kalashnikov, and an Israeli pistol, were discovered on his mobile phone during a Dover border inspection.
According to the NCA, Fation Dauti, 37, was involved in currency smuggling and money laundering through the export of costly vehicles to Albania and the ‘ownership and/or importation of firearms.’
According to reliable sources, Dauti currently operates a piano bar in Tirana. It was advised to The Mail that it would not be prudent to visit him there.
According to a senior official at the NCA’s Internal Far Europe Desk, the origins of the Albanian organized crime problem here may be traced back to the 1998-1999 Kosovo War. This led to “substantial numbers” of Albanians migrating to the United Kingdom.
Although most claimed to be Kosovar, many were actually Albanian. Criminals among them established contact with Serbian organized crime groups, who had ties to South American drug gangs and entered the cocaine market.
Albanian gangs established themselves in the Balkans, Europe, and the United Kingdom in’multi-commodity criminal operations, including drug trafficking of various types, human smuggling, passport fraud, modern slavery, money laundering, and firearms trafficking’ around 2006.
In judicial proceedings around the nation, the severe levels of violence employed by rival drug groups have been exposed. Last year, it came to light that a cannabis cultivator from Albania was chained to a bed and abused by gangsters who stole the crop from a Bradford residence.
The man, who had been smuggled into the United Kingdom by human traffickers, informed hospital officials that he had been robbed in the city center when he presented with severe knife and slash wounds to his legs after being bound with tape and flex and beaten at the residence.
There were signs of severe violence at the residence, including extensive bloodstains on the windows and a single bed. Also recovered were heavily bloodied electrical flex and black tape. Sources believe the 24-year-old was the target of a warning from a rival Albanian drug group.
Dr. Mohammed Qasim, a criminologist and visiting research fellow at the University of Bradford who specializes in organised crime and criminal gangs culture, estimates that between ten and fifteen major Albanian criminal families have a firm grip on their own businesses.
He continued, “There are obviously internal difficulties between the older members of families and the younger generation of gangsters, who are considerably brasher, prefer to flaunt their wealth, and are violent.”
Violence has been employed in the past, but mostly as a technique of demonstrating intent and achieving maximum effect with the smallest quantity. They did not go around picking fights with everyone they encountered.
Hellbanianz, one of the most renowned Albanian drug gangs in the United Kingdom, has operated at the Gascoigne estate in East London. Its members have not hesitated to brag about their depraved techniques and extravagant lifestyles.
Locally, the gang is notorious for its violence, and more internationally for its use of social media to recruit new members by posting images of Ferraris, £50 bills, and Rolex watches.
They are not alone in romanticizing crime. Popular is British-Albanian drill music. A video by a musician from Barking who performs as Stealth receives up to 15 million views.
Hellbanianz, one of the most renowned Albanian drug gangs in the United Kingdom, has operated at the Gascoigne estate in East London. Pictured: A member of the gang who was jubilant in his victory
Tony Saggers, former Head of Drugs Threat and Intelligence at the NCA, concurred that the younger criminals who have grown up in this country are using social media and making music videos more like young Britons. Because our world is so competitive and ego-driven, flaunting riches has grown widespread. They appear to desire a greater profile.
“If they are generating millions of pounds in revenue from drug sales, they are handling a great deal of cash, therefore money laundering becomes a burden and a task,” he explained.
According to law enforcement officials quoted by the Mail, millions in illicit proceeds are believed to be laundered through Albanian car washes in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Saggers stated, “I believe Albanian organized crime is here to stay for the time being.”
’ Lewis Benjamin, a retired deputy chief constable who was a leader in the fight against organized crime, concurs and has issued a dire warning about the threats presented by Albanian criminal groups. He also criticizes our “permeable boundaries.”
Mr. Benjamin, former ACPO National Coordinator for Serious and Organised Crime, told the Mail, “The lack of control over Albanian crime would lead to an upsurge in crime and violence on British streets.” Eventually, this will inevitably affect the lives of law-abiding folks, just as we are currently observing on our streets.
He continued, ‘Above all, it is blindingly evident that we have no knowledge who is in this country, where they are from, or what, if any, right they have to be here.’ Mr. Benjamin opined that political correctness impeded the fight against criminal gangs and stated that “a more coordinated and determined strategy” is required.
The fact that the man leading the war against Albanian organized crime is Steve Rodhouse, the chief of operations at the NCA and the guy who directed the botched Metropolitan Police Department investigation into VIP child sex abuse, Operation Midland, is not reassuring.
A list of 23 “dangerous” Albanian offenders who were deported from the United Kingdom to Tirana on July 14 illustrates the magnitude of the difficulty. They included an abductor, a pedophile, and a number of drug dealers who served time in jail here.
They included Kastriot Ahmati, 29, who unlawfully entered the United Kingdom a week after 39 migrants perished in the Essex lorry catastrophe and offered to transport an undercover journalist into the country via the same route for £14,000. The Birmingham Crown Court sentenced him to one year in prison after he was detected cultivating cannabis.
In 2015, 39-year-old Bledar Doka was sentenced to 18 years in jail for conspiracy to distribute Class A narcotics. Erion Mehmetaj, 26, a member of a cocaine-dealing group, was on the same flight back to Tirana. In 2019, he was sentenced to ten years and nine months in prison for conspiracy to distribute Class A narcotics.
How long will these terrible criminals remain in their home nation is the crucial question. If the story of Ferbent Hoxha is any indication, it may not take long at all. His past imprisonment and deportation did not prevent him from returning very quickly.
Photographs of him on Facebook from 2013 show him carrying a firearm in Albania, while images from nearly a decade ago depict him with wads of cash, pistols, fast cars, and motorcycles.
He was only 13 years old. Eventually, he was recruited, and a chillingly increasing number of aspiring young gangsters are following in his footsteps as the Albanian crime tsunami sweeps our nation.
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