Albanian gangs are now recognised by police as dominating the UK drug market, undercutting their rivals with lower prices, not to mention deadly violence.

Crime bosses from the Balkan state are said to have exploited direct links with Colombian cartels to secure cocaine at the best price, giving them the opportunity to gain the cooperation of British gangs with the promise of higher profits.

But while this model has seen a new generation of criminals take control of organised crime groups in big cities like London and Birmingham, it is not true everywhere, he says. Daily Mail.

Liverpool stands out as one of the few areas where Albanians cannot operate, experts say, as the drug trade remains in the hands of local criminals, often with strong ties to the communities they terrorize.

This was illustrated by the recent conviction of young Liverpool couple Eddie Burton, 23, and Sian Banks, 25, for running a £20m drug smuggling operation which brought hundreds of kilograms of heroin, cocaine and ketamine hidden in lorries from Europe to the UK.

The pair will be sentenced next week after their network was dismantled by National Crime Agency officers following Burton's arrest by Spanish police at the Pacha club in Ibiza in August 2023.

Another gang, based in Wirral, was jailed for a total of 44 years at the end of January for using the Royal Mail postal service to send £2.7m of ecstasy, cocaine, hallucinogenic mushrooms, LSD and ketamine across the country. The group stored the drugs in a warehouse in Birkenhead, before sending the orders from a post office inside a local shop.

Outside Merseyside, the growing dominance of Albanian gangs has been identified in a number of official studies, including a 2023 UN report, which found that gangs from this country now 'exert considerable control' over the UK drug market.

Last year, an internal legal document from the British Home Office described Albanian criminal gangs as a threat to the United Kingdom and 'very prevalent in serious and organised crime' in Britain, including several murders.

It is thought this includes the murder of Rhys Thompson, 29, a young father who was kidnapped and beaten to death in a conflict linked to a failed attempt to 'tax' a cannabis farm believed to have been run by an Albanian gang.

He was found dead with duct tape wrapped around his neck in West Yorkshire on the morning of May 13, 2021. No one has ever been charged with his murder.

National Crime Agency research has shown that Albanian organised crime groups control the cocaine market in major cities and suburban areas of the UK (with the exception of Merseyside). But the NCA says these gangsters are increasingly specialising in cannabis, which is considered a 'very low risk' market.

In 2023, the agency and 43 police forces in England and Wales targeted 'Western Balkans' gangs, seizing nearly 200.000 cannabis plants worth up to £130 million, £636,000 in cash, 26 kilograms of cocaine worth up to £1 million and 20 firearms.

So, with Albanian crime bosses increasingly tightening their grip on much of the United Kingdom, why have they been unable to establish their presence in Liverpool?

Experts cite several reasons, including the traditional strong control by local gangsters like Curtis Warren and the Huyton group over illegal shipments passing through the city's port.

Peter Walsh, author of the book Drug War: The Secret History, believes another answer can be found by looking at how Balkan gangs first infiltrated the British underworld.

"Albanians became a force in Europe during the 1990s," he told MailOnline.

“They established links with Colombians who exported cocaine to Europe via major shipping routes. By negotiating directly with suppliers, the Albanians were able to bypass the more established gangs in Europe. But, more importantly, they sold the drugs at lower prices than existing crime groups, which gave them a key advantage. The Albanians flourished in Greater London, which was already racially diverse. They then expanded into the London suburbs and into Birmingham.

"I think Merseyside has been left out of their reach for a combination of factors that have worked against them. The first is that Liverpool is a city with very strong local and clan ties. The supply of drugs in Liverpool has always been dominated by well-established crime groups, which have strong ties within the communities."

Despite their reputation for savage revenge against criminal rivals, Walsh believes the Albanians' business model was based on price competition, rather than the violence typical of drug gangs.

“The idea that Albanians would try to undercut local Liverpool gangs in nightclubs or slums is ludicrous. The first point is that they would not have been able to blend into the community in the same way that they could in London and Birmingham. Members of local communities associated with drug gangs would have reported their activities to the police, and they would then have faced serious violence. Liverpool is a city where outside crime groups are reluctant to enter for fear of violence,” he said.

A former detective who served for decades at Scotland Yard told MailOnline that Albanian drug gangs emerged as a problem in the early 2000s.

A former detective, who asked to remain anonymous, said that “the FBI came to Scotland Yard to warn us about the particular threat that Albanian criminal groups posed to the United Kingdom.”

"American officials told us that the Albanians were willing to use a level of brutal violence that had never been seen before in Britain. We then had meetings with MI6 officials (known as 'the six' among police) to discuss this threat. It was clear from then on that the Albanians were skilled in smuggling people, drugs and firearms," ​​he added.

The former detective claimed that many Albanian gangsters entered the UK claiming to be seeking asylum from the Yugoslav war, before establishing a strong base in the West London borough of Hounslow, near Heathrow Airport.

“Albanians were entering Britain to carry out revenge killings – an Albanian working as a taxi driver in the Hove area was hacked to death by one of these hit squads. The killers then tried to flee Britain, but my team managed to catch them in time. I would describe the Albanian crime groups we have dealt with as particularly vicious and ruthless,” he said.

Despite failing to penetrate Liverpool, he said Albanian gangs have now extended their influence to other countries, as far away as Australia.

A Liverpool man with knowledge of the city's underworld cited several other factors that make the city's drug scene particularly difficult for outsiders.

He told MailOnline: "The nightclub security industry in Liverpool used to be closely linked to the drug trade. The security teams controlled the sale of drugs in clubs and bars, to put it simply. But the club guards were all locals and knew the club owners. Yes, there were conflicts sometimes, but in the end everything was sorted out. The second point is the Port of Liverpool. Curtis Warren and then the Huyton group have always controlled what comes in through the port. Again, the Albanians have no influence here, so they can't penetrate the market. The only option for Albanians in Liverpool is for a small group to come for the weekend, sell pills in a few clubs and then leave on the Monday."

AlbaniaNewsThe teamsLiverpool