Albanian gangs are waging open warfare on London's streets, experts warn
Open warfare between Albanian criminals is being waged on the streets of London as they attempt to increase their drug-dealing territory.
In the latest attack ten days ago, two men were shot in broad daylight as they drove through Barking in East London, a stronghold of the Hellbanianz, a notorious Albanian crime group.
A 20-year-old has been identified in the Albanian community in London as target of the assassination attempt on Wilmington Gardens, Barking, at 2.15pm on Thursday June 4.
Armed officers who attended the scene found the two men lying injured with gunshot wounds, one still in his car being tended by residents.
Gashi, who has lived in Britain for several years, was said to remain in a critical condition in hospital, while the second man’s injuries were not life-threatening.
A 26-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder in west Ealing with the investigation being led by Trident detectives from the Met Police’s specialist crime command. They are appealing for witnesses.
It follows murders of five Albanians in the past year as the gangs tighten their grip on the UK cocaine market, estimated by the National Crime Agency (NCA) to be worth between £9.4 billion and £11.8 billion annually, and over £25.7 million daily.
Cocaine use up in UK
The NCA says cocaine consumption in England, Wales and Scotland has increased by at least 290 per cent since 2011 to 117 tonnes per year.
“Criminals from Albania have established a high profile and degree of influence within UK organised crime (and) are increasingly expanding their network of influence, with considerable access to the UK drug trafficking market, particularly cocaine,” said an NCA spokesman.
On an Instagram page, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, an Albanian colleague posted a video of the shooting’s aftermath with the warning: “The Albanian boys in England are lazy and don’t work in an honest way. On their mind is one thing - just to sell drugs.
“This is what happens to you on the end of drug deals. I am feeling sorry for his family. I hope the rest will learn the lessons that life is not a movie or adventure. Do work honestly, don’t think you will get rich in one year with drugs.”
The Barking-based Hellbanianz gang who act as the street dealers for the Albanian Mafia Shqiptare have racked up almost 100,000 followers on one of their pages where they display expensive cars, weapons and money.
Mafia Shqiptare are the Albanian organised criminal syndicates who police believe are consolidating their power within the UK criminal underworld and are on their way to a near total takeover of the UK cocaine market.
By importing cocaine direct from South America, Mafia Shqiptare have removed the middleman, enabling them to undercut their rivals by buying the drug at a quarter the price straight from the cartels and then increasing the purity on the streets.
Among the murders is that of Albanian-born Flamur Beqiri, 36, was gunned down in front of his wife outside their £1.5million Battersea home in south London last December.
It later emerged he was one of Sweden’s most wanted men. Police reported a double murder of two Albanians, one of whom was found in the trunk of a car stabbed to death.
Just two months earlier an Albanian drug dealer was murdered in his Brighton flat in what court was told was a “brutal, sustained and determined” attack involving a knife, a metal scaffolding pole and a threaded barbell.
Two other murders in July and September included an Albanian being gunned down outside a snooker club in east London.
The gangs exploit young Albanians who are lured to the UK with promises of work and wealth. They are the second most trafficked or enslaved nationality in the UK after Britons.
The number of Albanians in jails has quadrupled from 212 in 2013 to 999 in March this year, accounting for 10 per cent of all foreign nationals in prison.
