One in ten foreign prisoners are now Albanian after taking over Britain’s drug trade

ONE in ten foreign prisoners is now Albanian after they took over Britain’s cocaine trade.

Gangsters from the Western Balkan state have overtaken Poles as the most common non-Brits in jail for the first time.

They made up 876 of the 9,089 Foreign National Offenders in English jails in June this year, the Ministry of Justice said.

The number of Albanians behind bars has almost doubled in just four years, from 475 recorded in June 2015. A decade ago the figure was only 166.

A Ministry of Justice report revealed: “The most common nationalities after British Nationals in prisons are Albanian (10 per cent of the FNO prison population), Polish (8 per cent), Romanian (8 per cent), Irish (8 per cent) and Jamaican (5 per cent).”

It comes after the highly organised and ruthless Albanian cartels muscled in on Britain’s lucrative hard drugs markets. They not only control street dealing but also importing of shipments from around the world.

The threat faced from Albanian crime groups is significant

National Crime Agency

Britain’s FBI – the National Crime Agency – has warned: “Albanian crime groups have established a high profile influence within UK organised crime, and have considerable control across the UK drug trafficking market, particularly cocaine. They are also expanding their influence upstream.”

It added: “The threat faced from Albanian crime groups is significant. London is their primary hub, but they are established across the UK.”

Just last month a 12-strong “large scale organised crime gang” of Albanian dealers was jailed for selling huge amounts of cocaine to City workers, after police found more than a kilo of the Class A drug and £20,000 in cash.

And in June, The Sun told how an Albanian gang operated a “Deliveroo for drugs” in leafy Tunbridge Wells from a 24/7 call centre in London.

A brazen gang from Barking called the Hellbanianz post pictures of their flash cars, guns and wads of cash on Instagram.

The National Crime Agency told The Sun: “Criminals from Albania have established a high profile and degree of influence within UK organised crime, are increasingly expanding their network of influence, with considerable access to the UK drug trafficking market, particularly cocaine.

“The NCA combines intelligence gathering and operational activity to target highly organised crime groups for whom drugs are just one source of income and who use the profits to support other forms of crime.

“This includes people trafficking, firearms trafficking, corruption, and money laundering, all of which cause damage, violence and exploitation.”

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