Albanian criminals carry hundreds of millions of pounds out of UK each year

Albanian criminal gangs are on the rise in the UK and shipping hundreds of millions of pounds in criminal proceeds back to Albania every year.

Official sources have said that a number of different businesses are often used to launder money but the majority of criminal funds are simply carried back to Albania by hand, or in vehicles.

In recent seizures, £300,000 was found in luggage at a UK airport, bound for the Albanian capital Tirana.

In another incident Border officers found £500,000 hidden in a van at a UK port.

Albanian crime groups now control the majority of cannabis farms across the UK.

In recent years, Albanian criminals have taken over much of the trade in cannabis from Vietnamese crime groups.

Most of the criminal activity involving cannabis farms is understood to be concentrated in more northern areas.

But in almost every part of the country, Albanians are the dominant group involved in cannabis cultivation.

In the south of the country, Albanian crime groups still control most of the cocaine trade.

Sources said that the trade in cannabis was largely self-contained amongst Albanian criminals here, with less control from crime bosses in their home country.

But the cocaine trade is largely overseen by crime lords back in Albania.

Across the UK, there has been a number of recent arrests of Albanians suspected of involvement in cross-Channel people smuggling.

Increasingly, many Albanians who enter the UK asylum system and are then housed in hotels, disappear within days, picked up by criminal contacts.

Recent figures revealed that around 60 percent of those arriving by small boat had come from Albania.

Many of the Albanian crime groups have been using social media to advertise for people interested in making the Channel crossing.

They arrange passage to north west France, where they are then handed over to the Kurdish gang masters.

In recent months UK authorities have convinced the big social media giants to remove more than 1,700 videos posted by Albanian criminals.