Albanian criminal groups have taken control of the drug trade in major UK cities, forcing rival gangs to lower their prices and leading to deadly violence. According to the Daily Mail, Albanians in Britain use direct connections with Colombian cartels to secure cocaine at better prices, giving them a competitive edge in the illicit market.
 |
| Liverpool |
A clear example of this was the recent sentencing of a young Liverpool couple, Eddie Burton (23) and Sian Banks (25), who were accused of smuggling hundreds of kilograms of heroin, cocaine, and ketamine into the city, worth millions of euros. Additionally, another local group in Liverpool was sentenced to a total of 44 years in prison at the end of January for using the Royal Mail to distribute MDMA, ecstasy, cocaine, magic mushrooms, LSD, and ketamine across the country.
Beyond Liverpool, Albanian gangs are reported to dominate the UK drug market, according to multiple studies, including the 2023 UN report on organized crime. However, what makes Liverpool different, and why have Albanian gangs failed to penetrate its underworld?
Peter Walsh, author of Drug War: The Secret History, explains:
“Albanians became a force in Europe during the 1990s. My view is that they established direct links with Colombian suppliers who exported cocaine to Europe via key trafficking routes. By negotiating directly with suppliers, Albanians managed to bypass larger European criminal organizations. More importantly, they sold drugs at lower prices than existing crime groups, giving them a decisive advantage.”
“Albanians flourished in Greater London before expanding into other counties and Birmingham. I believe that Merseyside has remained out of their reach due to a combination of factors working against them. First, Liverpool is a highly localized and clan-based city. The drug supply in Liverpool has always been controlled by well-known criminal groups with deep-rooted connections within local communities.”
“The key issue is that Albanians would not have been able to integrate into the community in Liverpool as easily as they did in London and Birmingham. Local crime-connected communities would have reported their activities to the police, leading to significant violence. Liverpool is a city where external crime groups hesitate to enter due to the fear of brutal retaliation.”
As Albanian gangs continue to expand their influence across Britain, Liverpool remains a rare exception, where long-established local networks have successfully resisted outside control. Whether this will remain the case in the future remains to be seen, but for now, the city stands as one of the last strongholds against the dominance of Albanian criminal organizations in the UK drug market.