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Voxpress:

The cannabis farm epidemic drastically increased the number of Albanians imprisoned in Britain

2023-12-03 14:01:43Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

The cannabis farm epidemic drastically increased the number of Albanians

An "epidemic" of cannabis farms has led to an increase in the number of imprisoned Albanians, an investigation has revealed. More than 100 illegal Albanian immigrants have been sentenced to more than 300 years in prison in just three months after being recruited by organized crime gangs to serve the rapidly growing number of cannabis farms.

Three-quarters (77) of the 101 Albanians jailed between August and October this year were convicted of gang-run cannabis-related offenses across England and Wales, according to an analysis of the cases by The Telegraph. The number of punishments is four times the normal norm for Albanians. Many of the illegal immigrants were recruited by gangs after a government crackdown on black economy work made it difficult for them to find work.

Ministers have tripled fines for bosses who employ illegal immigrants to up to £60,000 per worker, in a move designed to make the practice so economically damaging that it could "put them out of business". A police operation targeting cannabis farms this summer also involved officers seizing up to 130 million pounds of cannabis plants and arresting almost 1,000 people. More than 180,000 plants have been discovered in raids in England and Wales.

Operation Mille targeted illicit crops which police believe are a cash cow for organized crime gangs (OCGs) who are also involved in other offences, such as money laundering, Class A drug smuggling and violence .

In the last five years, Albanian gangs have prioritized the cannabis cultivation market, usurping the Vietnamese as well as importing their hydroponic expertise in growing plants to Albania and Britain and using illegal immigrants as "gardeners".

The number of Albanians crossing the Channel in 2022 in small boats rose to 12,301 from 800 in 2021, more than a quarter of the 45,755 total arrivals. Among the prisoners this summer was Nard Nidri, 34, who entered the UK illegally last summer and lived in Birmingham before moving to Swansea where he worked in a car wash before being recruited to a cannabis farm.

He was one of four "gardeners" jailed for a total of six years in August after police arrested them at a property in Neath, south Wales, where two rooms and a loft had been adapted and isolated to grow street-value plants of £85,000.

"SOMETHING LIKE INDUSTRY"

Sentencing them, Judge Geraint Walters said the cannabis farms run by Albanian criminal gangs had reached "epidemic levels" and, in his view, had "turned into an industry". He suggested authorities should look at the rental housing sector, noting that while so-called cannabis "farmers" often appeared in court, landlords and others who received money from renting properties used for growing operations rarely did. they did this.

Other Albanians have worked for gangs to pay off debts. Artenis Shehu, 20, was jailed for a year after working on a cannabis farm in the Norfolk Broads to clear what he claimed was a £2,500 debt owed to an organized crime gang to pay for a medical operation for his father his.

Judge Andrew Shaw told Shehu that the £225,000 cannabis operation was a "sophisticated organisation" which had "all the earmarks" of "serious organized crime". "The message needs to get out that exploitation by organized crime criminals is not a get out of jail free card," he said.

Albanian gangs moved to cannabis because it was "very, very low risk", turned out to be a good profit due to high demand. Britons consumed 240 tonnes of drugs worth £2.4bn in 2021 – and it does not require dangerous cross-border transport because it is grown domestically, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA).

This week, James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, signed a new deal with Albania to support the fast-track deportation and anti-immigration deal, which has seen crossings by Albanians cut by 90 per cent this year.


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