Albanian drug gangs use TikTok to recruit supervisors for British cannabis farms

Albanian gangs now dominate the domestic cannabis market, growing the plants in houses or abandoned industrial facilities using hydroponic techniques imported from farms in their home country.

Over the past decade, they have displaced the Vietnamese as the main supplier of cannabis to British consumers.

Their position in the market has been strengthened by the influx of a steady stream of workers from a pool of about 12,000 illegal Albanian migrants who arrived in 2022.

Agreement on accelerated deportation

Since then, however, the number of refugees has fallen as the government tightened measures and signed fast-track deportation agreements with Albania. Last year the number fell to just 900, and in the first six months of this year only 150 Albanians crossed the canal in small boats.

At the same time, the number of Albanians jailed for illegal farms has soared. In July, 29 people were sentenced to prison terms ranging from eight months to two years and four months for producing cannabis for the British market. A further 24 were sentenced in August, most of whom are awaiting sentencing this month.

“Albanian organized crime offers its compatriots percentages on drug production in exchange for working as cannabis farmers,” said an Albanian law enforcement expert. “These unusual moves are related to the lack of people willing to be locked up in houses to grow cannabis.”

“Such ads are placed on TikTok and offer a share of up to 30 percent of sales, depending on the amount of cannabis produced.”

“Workers wanted for grass houses”

An ad in Albanian seen by The Telegraph said: “I am the owner of a cannabis house. I was chatting with my employee, then everything went wrong. Now I give this employee 30 percent of the profit made in this house, excluding living expenses.”

Another said: “Weed house workers needed. If you take care of 80 plants, you get 25 percent of the product and we pay the expenses. Comment or DM.”

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

A fourth one, next to a picture of a masked man with a heavy gold chain across his chest, simply read: “Respect for all the guys who earn 30 percent.”

A typical case of those arrested is 21-year-old Edison Cenaj, who was arrested at a house in Brynmawr in South Wales. There, police found him tending over 120 plants worth up to £85,000. He was sentenced to 32 weeks in prison.

His lawyer Tochi Ejimofo told Cardiff Crown Court that Cenaj was vulnerable and had worked on the cannabis farm to pay off debts to the gang that brought him to the UK illegally. He had come to the UK looking for work but now hoped to return to Albania and study sports science.

TikTok was contacted for comment.