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The Times: How young Albanians are lured by money, drugs and the "gangster" life in Britain

2022-09-03 09:34:47Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

The Times: How young Albanians are lured by money, drugs and the

By Tom Kington, The Times

Roberto Mulaj can admire views of neighboring Kosovo from his farm, which is located in a valley in northern Albania. However, more often than not, the teenager can be found curled up with his phone watching videos of his favorite rapper, Marin, who likes to show videos of huge sums of money and drive around London in a Mercedes with his crew of weapon.

"I am interested in going to England. It seems a better life than here, I saw it on Instagram", said Roberto, 14 years old.

His father, the mayor of the local village of Dobrune, said he had no intention of stopping Roberto from leaving, even if he risked falling into the clutches of an Albanian drug gang based in Britain.

"I hope he doesn't leave, but there's nothing here and I can't stop him," said Xhemal Mulaj, 50.

Roberto could soon join the 6,000 Albanians who have boarded dinghies to cross the English Channel this year, a surge fueled by Albanian traffickers who have become part of the once Kurdish-dominated business with prices of up to £3,000, in compared to the 15,000 pounds the Albanians paid to hide in a truck.

Cunning smugglers urge their clients to cross now or risk deportation to Rwanda, meaning entire communities in Albania are being destroyed. In Dobrune, 15 people have recently left, leaving behind only 60 residents, reports abcnews.al.

The figures are negative for the province around Has, which had a population of 17,000 a decade ago.

"Eight thousand people from Has are now in London, another 400 are in France awaiting passage and 33 families have left in the past month alone. "God save them," said Dylber Geca, head of education in the provincial town of Kruma, where a red phone booth sits outside a local cafe called "Britani".

"For us, Great Britain is everything," said Shefget Douti, the council chief, who admitted that one of his sons was living in Britain illegally.

Dozens of new homes, far grander than ordinary homes, are being built on the outskirts of Hass
Driven by dire poverty, many people have fled to join relatives who traveled to the UK 20 years ago first, when some claimed to be refugees fleeing the 1998 war in Kosovo.

They often look for honest work, but young people are now increasingly lured to work on cannabis farms set up by Albanian gangs who now control half of Britain's cannabis supply, having already monopolized the cocaine business.

"Most do not intend to become criminals, but they are certainly at risk the moment they get on the boat," said Fatjona Mejdini, from the Global Initiative Against Organized Crime.

In Zahrisht, near Kruma, a 32-year-old teacher named Festim Dauti was less convinced.

"They enter the underworld fully aware of what they are doing," he said. "I am losing good students who would have become the teachers and doctors we need to build a future for Albania."

40 locals, mostly teenagers, have left for Britain in the past two months, Dauti said: 10 percent of the village's population. British officials say that drug gangs are recruiting people without criminal records to replace the 497 Albanians deported last year. This allows them to have workers for their drug houses, with TikTok videos showing rooms filled with cannabis plants, reports abcnews.al.

One person commented: "Do you need workers?" Another said: "I can come tomorrow."

Fabian Zhilla, a crime expert at the Canadian Institute of Technology in Tirana, said: "The recruitment is not done by the bosses, but by the footmen, the so-called shepherds who take care of the crops, who reach out to friends and relatives."

Albanians accounted for 19% of illegal crossings in the year to June, outstripping any other nationality. The idea of ​​getting away has permeated every street corner in Has, where BMWs and Audis with British number plates – often customized belong to boys who have returned from London.

"Albanian girls say they are waiting to try dating a guy with a 'yellow license plate'," said one resident. McMansions, built by Albanian immigrants who have become wealthy in Britain dot the landscape.

Mejdini said: "The reality is that immigrants sleep on the floor of cannabis houses, woken up by alarms constantly to water the plants." A video shows an Albanian, covered in blood, who was brutally raped; a warning that once hired, quitting is not an option.

To bring the Albanians back, Britain and Albania signed an agreement last week to quickly process repatriations. Alastair King-Smith, the British ambassador in Tirana, said: “People are working all the time on this. We intend to return the emigrants to Albania as soon as possible, within days and not months".

What could be a solution for Britain could create problems for Albania as more gang members are being sent home. Albanian drug traffickers based in Great Britain already have a habit of conflicting with each other when they return to their homeland, reports abcnews.al.

The two rival gangs originally from Elbasan, which started with drug operations in Birmingham and Liverpool as well as on the continent, carried out 13 revenge killings in their city between 2018 and 2021, sparked by the alleged theft of a consignment of cocaine from 50 kg in London.

"Gangs kill in Albania and not in the UK because they believe they can pay off the police and prosecutors," said Klodiana Lala, a crime reporter.

Another reason to fear that British gang activity will spread to Albania is because of a hidden wealth amnesty being considered by the government in Tirana.

"There are serious concerns that a fiscal amnesty could be used by criminals to launder dirty money, including from the UK," King-Smith said.

The British government is now trying to solve the problem by offering Albania up to £8.9 million to develop the region around Has and the town of Kukes in the hope that people will not leave.

Britain could also provide money for a new dam and the construction of a prison. In Dobrune, Alush Myzyraj, a school bus driver is worried that he might be late.

"Once I took 40 children to school. Now I'm sending eight so I just quit because it's not worth it. Everyone is in Great Britain, long live Great Britain.”

Students now face a 90-minute walk down an unpaved road to get to school this winter, the mayor said.

"When the snow starts, there will be another reason for them to leave as well."

As Great Britain increases the number of repatriations of illegal Albanian immigrants, a suspected drug trafficker, who has already been banned from entering Britain, is causing a stir in Albanian politics.

Fation Dauti, who drove a Bentley, had his UK residence seized in 2019 after the National Crime Agency secured evidence that he was a key player in Britain's cocaine and cannabis business, linked to people-trafficking and accused for violence, reports abcnews.al.

However, he has not been charged and his lawyer, Hektor Lahi, told The Times that Dauti has always maintained that he is innocent and is seeking his rights. Lahi said Dauti, 37, was challenging the UK ban at the European Court of Human Rights with a possible decision expected within three weeks.

Last December, in Tirana, Dauti was filmed in front of a crowd of supporters of former prime minister Sali Berisha. In the video, he is seen kicking the door of a meeting room at Berisha's party headquarters during the fight between the rival factions of the party.

At the time, the Democratic Party split into two rival groups, one led by Berisha, and his opponents who had closed the door to the meeting hall to prevent his supporters from gathering there.

"Dauti does not represent the party in any way. He was there as an activist," a party spokesman said.

Berisha himself has been banned from entering the UK and the US on suspicions that he is involved in corruption – claims he denies. He has reported that Great Britain has accused him of "relations with organized crime groups and criminals who pose a risk to public safety in Albania and the United Kingdom" and that he was willing to use these connections" to advance his political ambitions.

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