Seven Jailed for Smuggling in Albanians to Work in UK Cannabis Factories

An undated image of Doru-Emil Moldovan pictured in the cab of a lorry in Dover, England. Moldovan was jailed for people trafficking offences on June 22, 2023. (Metropolitan Police)

Seven men involved in trafficking illegal immigrants from Albania to Britain to work in cannabis factories have been jailed.

The Metropolitan Police described them as a “sophisticated organised crime group” and said they dismantled the gang after launching an operation together with the Home Office’s immigration enforcement department and the UK Border Force.

Seven men were sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court in east London on Thursday for conspiring to facilitate the illegal entry of people from Albania into the UK between Jan. 1, 2021, and May 15, 2021.

The Albanians were hidden in special compartments in the cabs of Romanian lorries which crossed the English Channel by ferry from Dunkirk to Dover.

It is the first criminal conviction to underline the words of the National Crime Agency, which confirmed last year that Albanian gangs were bringing in illegal immigrants to work in homes and warehouses converted to grow cannabis.

In November 2022 Ged McCann, a senior NCA intelligence manager, told a briefing of journalists that Albanian gangs were working with Iraqi Kurd people-trafficking syndicates and were “effectively bringing in the labour force for the cannabis grows.”

An undated image of the cab of a lorry—under which illegal immigrants from Albania hid—which was stopped by police at an undisclosed location in England in 2021. (Metropolitan Police)

The Met said, in a statement, that they began investigating the gang in August 2020 after receiving intelligence from a Safer Neighbourhoods Team investigating cannabis factories in the London Borough of Brent.

‘Simple Business Model’

The Met said: “All the factories were closed down. This discovery enabled the investigation team to identify a simple business model being used by the organised crime group who arranged for other criminals to enter the UK.”

Detectives focused on motorway service stations in the south east of England as well as Southgate and Enfield in north London and Wellingborough in Northamptonshire.

They discovered that the Albanians were being trafficked into Britain in Romanian lorries which stopped at various motorway service areas.

The illegal immigrants would then crawl out of their hiding spaces in the lorry cabs and meet a member of the gang who would take them to their destination, usually a property in Southgate.

The lorry drivers were occasionally given a small package before they drove off.

The Met said the Albanian illegal immigrants paid the gang between £20,000 and £24,000 in cash to travel to the UK, sums which would be paid back by working in the cannabis factories.

When the Met moved in and made a number of arrests in May 2021 three of the ringleaders immediately pleaded guilty.

Undated images of Arlin Leka (L) and Dimitraki Nika (R) who were jailed for people trafficking offences at Snaresbrook Crown Court in London on June 22, 2023 (Metropolitan Police)

Arlin Leka, 29, an Albanian national, was jailed for six years for his part in the conspiracy and had £13,000 in cash confiscated.

Dimitraki Nika, 35, a Greek national, was jailed for four years, and lorry driver Doru-Emil Moldovan, 32, a Romanian national, was jailed for 20 months and had £9,980 in cash confiscated.

Four others were convicted after a six-week trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

Kristian Agolli, 35, was jailed for three years and three months, Aldis Cseplye, 33, was jailed for two years and nine months, Sorin Holerca, 40, was jailed for four years and six months, and Jozef Szekely, 33, was jailed for two years.

Home Office Warns of ‘Consequences’

Chris Foster, deputy director of the Home Office’s criminal and financial investigation unit, said: “We will continue to work closely with our policing partners to disrupt people-smuggling gangs and ensure those who abuse our laws face the consequences of their crimes.”

A National Crime Agency officer inspects a cannabis farm - with a crop worth £1 million - which was found in a derelict nightclub in Coventry, England, in October 2020. (National Crime Agency)

In February 2023 The Epoch Times reported how there had been a growth in cannabis factories in Britain as criminals decided to cultivate the drug in Britain, rather than trying to import it.

But there has also been a rise in violence linked to the cannabis trade, with seven people killed in the last five years in England and Wales in incidents linked to break-ins or attempted burglaries at houses or factories which have been converted into cannabis farms.

In December 2021, Xhovan Pepaj, a 25-year-old Albanian national, was stabbed to death while minding a cannabis factory in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

A trial of several men accused of killing Pepaj is due to start at Lewes Crown Court next month.