Albanian drug gangs ‘recruiting cannabis farmers on TikTok’

Albanian TikTok adverts are offering cannabis farm labourers  up to 30 per cent of the profits from street sales of the drugs
Albanian TikTok adverts are offering cannabis farm labourers up to 30 per cent of the profits from street sales of the drugs

Albanian drug gangs are openly ‘recruiting cannabis farmers on TikTok’ amid worker shortages in Britain.

The gang bosses are using social media to advertise for live-in labourers to grow the cannabis crops - and are offering special deals where instead of being paid expenses, farm labourers will receive up to 30 per cent of the profits from street sales of the drugs.

The financial incentives have become necessary because of the dramatic fall in the number of Albanians entering the UK illegally on small boats, and a sharp increase in Albanians being jailed for cannabis farming or deported after arriving in Britain.

Commenting on the Telegraph’s disclosures this weekend, Angela Eagle, the Border Security Minister, said: “It’s shocking that criminal gangs use social media to prey on vulnerable people, luring them into working in abhorrent conditions and cultivating drugs such as cannabis with false promises of profit.

“Whether online or on our streets, there must be no hiding place for those who break the law. We are surging enforcement activity to make more arrests, increasing prosecutions not just in the UK but with partners across Europe, and ensuring all of our relevant partners are working hand-in-glove under our new border security command.”

Angela Eagle, the Border Security Minister, said: 'It's shocking that criminal gangs use social media to prey on vulnerable people'
Angela Eagle, the Border Security Minister, said: ‘It’s shocking that criminal gangs use social media to prey on vulnerable people’ - Nigel Howard

Albanian gangs have come to dominate the domestic cannabis market, where plants are grown in houses or vacant industrial premises using hydroponic technology imported from farms in their homeland.

In the past decade, they have usurped the Vietnamese as the main suppliers of cannabis to UK users.

Their hold on the market was strengthened with the influx of a steady stream of workers from a pool of some 12,000 illegal Albanian migrants who arrived in 2022.

Fast-track deportation deals

Since then, however, numbers have dwindled as the Government has toughened enforcement and signed fast-track deportation deals with Albania. Last year, numbers dropped to just 900 and, for the first six months of this year, only 150 Albanians have crossed the Channel in small boats.

At the same time, the number of Albanians jailed for tending the illegal farms has surged. In July, 29 received sentences ranging from eight months to two years and four months for producing cannabis to supply the UK market. A further 24 were convicted in August, with most awaiting sentence this month.

“Albanian organised crime are offering percentages on drug production for their countrymen to work as cannabis farmers,” said an Albanian law enforcement expert. “These unusual steps are linked to the shortages of people willing to be locked up in houses to grow cannabis.

“Such advertisements are put on TikTok offering up to 30 per cent share of the sale depending on the quantity of cannabis produced.”

‘Workers for grass houses requested’

One advert in Albanian, seen by The Telegraph, said: “I am the owner of a cannabis house. I chatted to my worker then all things went wrong. Now I am giving this employee 30 per cent of the profit made in that house without living expenses.”

Another said: “Workers for grass houses requested. If you look after 80 plants you get 25 per cent of the product and we pay expenses. Comment or DM”.

A third offered a salary of £9,000 for three months’ work inside a cannabis house, including growing the plants, harvesting and packaging.

A fourth with a picture of a masked man with a heavy gold chain hanging across his chest simply said: “Respect for all boys working for 30 per cent.”

Typical of those jailed is Edison Cenaj, 21, who was arrested at a house in Brynmawr in south Wales where police found he was tending more than 120 plants worth up to £85,000. He was jailed for 32 weeks.

His solicitor Tochi Ejimofo told Cardiff Crown Court that Cenaj was vul­ner­able and had been working at the cannabis farm to repay debts to the gang that brought him into the UK illegally. He had come to the UK seeking work but now hoped to return to Albania and study sport science.

TikTok said it was committed to ensuring that the app is not used to take advantage of vulnerable people and did not allow any content facilitating or coordinating human smuggling or associated criminality.

It said the posts had been or would be removed and investigated for breaches of its community guidelines.