How Albanian gangsters are running their bloodthirsty drugs network across UK… but there’s a city they CAN’T touch
ALBANIAN gangsters flooding the UK with drugs have been warned by crime godfathers there is ONE city that is strictly forbidden.
Over the last 20 years Albanian gangs have seized control of Britain’s booming cocaine market after forming an alliance with deadly Latin American drug cartels.
Their ‘cheap and fast’ British business model has seen them dominate the drugs trade by outpricing competitors, working with local gangs and avoiding pointless bloodshed.
Two decades of success have seen Albanian drug bosses splash their dirty cash on luxury lifestyles – sporting designer clothes while driving Ferraris and Bentleys.
One of the most infamous gangs to rise is The Hellbanianz, who are based on the Gascoigne Estate in Barking, East London.
Unlike other crews, the gang love the limelight and have become known for their garish music videos on social media showing them surrounded by wads of cash, jewellery and flash motors.
The Hellbanianz are understood to traffic millions of pounds worth of drugs into the UK each year.
RISE TO THE TOP
Thousands of Albanians arrived in the UK in the late 1990s and early 2000s during a refugee crisis.
They first made their mark in Soho’s sex trade, where veteran Met detectives were shocked by the routine violence they handed out to the vulernable girls they controlled.
Police sources have told how in the early 2000s they fought against Jamaican and Chinese drug gangs for control of London, to then penetrate all levels of the UK’s £5billion cocaine trade.
Now a London-based Albanian gangs expert has lifted the lid on how criminals from his countrymen dominate the capital and Manchester’s coke trade.
Albanian drug gangs are everywhere in the UK but not in Liverpool. They have been warned.
Albanian gangs expert
But there is one city where local godfathers have told them to stay away – Liverpool.
The man, who asked not be named, told The Sun: “Albanian drug gangs are everywhere in the UK but not in Liverpool.
“The local gangs protect Liverpool and will not let them in. They have been warned.
“Geographically they are probably strongest in north and east London. After that they are big in Manchester. “
FORBIDDEN CITY
But a former Liverpool crook suggested it was only a matter of time before the Albanians made their move on the port city.
He said the Albanian crews might chose to take their chance after the police penetration of the EncroChat encrypted phone network had weakened Merseyside coke gangs.
The man said: “The Albanians have made a lot of money and are now in Manchester.
“They are now into laundering their cash and are linked to door firms across the country.
“The Encrochat hack has hit a lot of Liverpool drugs gangs hard so the Albanians might be thinking now is the time to make their move into Liverpool, where there is a massive cocaine market.
“And we have the port too which will interest them.”
Despite making their fortune in drugs, the Albanian gangs made their mark on the UK underworld with prostitution rackets in 1998.
But later made connections with cartels.
The Albanian gangs expert explained: “In around 2000 Albanians in Amsterdam made contact with drug suppliers from Latin America.
“They secured direct access to the wholesalers, and based their business model on being ‘cheap and fast.’
“In 2005 the coke price per kilo was around £37k but they put their price at £32k.
“They then flooded the UK with cocaine, looking to make as much money as possible.
“Their model was to collaborate with local gangs, make money and avoid disputes.
Albanians might be thinking now is the time to make their move into Liverpool, where there is a massive cocaine market.
“This idea of an Albanian mafia is not helpful. They do not have a Don Corleone in charge or anything like that.
“The various Albanian drug gangs are typically ten strong. The members will be assigned different tasks. They will have a driver, a minder and a cash collector,
“Typically the gang members may be related and may all come from the same town in Albania.
“They have made a lot of money from selling coke in the UK, which they have used to buy land and property back in Albania.”
The expert said that many of the gangsters use their wealth to set up cannabis farms and security firms to work as bouncers in the UK.
They often get young boys to look after their farms and watch the cash roll in away from the eyes of the police.
He explained: “In terms of the security firms the Albanians will put doormen on a nightclub which is used by drug dealers. The doormen will help the dealers to sell in a secure environment, and in return get a fee.
“That is the way it works. So they have made a lot of money over the past two decades.
“The Albanian gang members like to spend their cash on flash cars such as Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Rolls Royce and Bentleys.
“The key thing is to have a personalised registration plate. They all take cocaine and like nice holidays to Spain and Dubai.”
DIRTY MONEY
Three members of The Hellbanianz were locked up for a total of 42 years in 2016 following a police operation which recovered £6million worth of drugs and a machine gun.
One member, pictured showing his middle finger to the camera, wrote on Instagram: “I’m trying to spend It.. You still trying to make it #SnowMoney not #ShowMoney”
Other images on their social media channels showed a cake laden with £50 notes as well as footage of gang-members in prison rapping about violent attacks.
Elsewhere, they brag about having “city control” over London and say they are “ready for war” with rival gangs.
Peter Walsh, author of Drug War: The Secret History, traced the emergence of Albanian drug gangs to the collapse of communism in the early 90s.
They knew that this would gain them market share and ultimately dominance, like an illicit version of the online retailer Amazon.
Peter Walsh
He said: “At the collapse of communism around 1991, Albania entered a period of political, social and economic turmoil. This created a breeding ground for organised gangs.
“They had a natural advantage in the drug trade due to geography, as they could tranship heroin by opening a new front on the traditional Balkan Route from Anatolia.
“Soon they also moved into cocaine, which they spotted was very much the drug of the new millennium in Europe.
“Law enforcement probably first spotted this in 1999, when an Albanian mafia gang was found to have forged links with Colombia’s North Valley Cartel and to have ordered multi-tonne shipments of cocaine to be sent across the Atlantic hidden on cargo ships.
“Their model involving buying in bulk from the Colombians – thereby paying lower prices – and then selling across Europe cheaply and efficiently.
“They were prepared to order huge amounts and then flood it onto the streets, undercutting rival sellers on price.
“They knew that this would gain them market share and ultimately dominance, like an illicit version of the online retailer Amazon.
“They took over entire markets by this a mix of reliable, on-time dealing and low pricing. They would wholesale to UK dealing gangs for as little as £23,000 a kilo, absurdly low by British standards.
“This brought primo cocaine within price reach of younger gangs who previously had not been able to raise the money to afford large supplies – and who could now pass on some of the discount to a new swathe of customers.
“Tragically, however, this was often accompanied by lethal violence as these young gangs fought their own wars for territory and custom.”
Last November Steve Brocklesby from the National Crime Agency said: ” The estimates are that hundreds of millions of pounds UK sterling is leaving the UK and ending up in Albania, where it then gets semi-legitimised either into the banking system or to pay for construction work.”
Deputy director Andrea Wilson described Albanian crime gangs as “resourceful, adaptable and entrepreneurial.”