Huge wads of cash, weapons and rows of cannabis plants; just a few of the brazen social media posts from Albanian criminals boasting from 'inside Birmingham factories.' In a series of accounts now uncovered as part of an investigation, crime groups can be seen bragging of their illicit operations, glamourizing so-called 'easy money' working for drug farms in UK cities and towns.
An Instagram account branding itself "the only official site for Birmingham&UK boys", largely shares photos of thick cash wads packed in suitcases and neatly stacked £20 notes. But one chilling YouTube video tagging 'Birmingham' shows a criminal brandishing a gun and large hunting knife between the stalks of a cannabis plant.
Another image, alleged to be taken in Birmingham, shows a large cannabis set up being tended to by a 'gardener', dressed in a mask, glasses and a hairnet. Using Instagram and TikTok, it has emerged the farms are shown on live social media streams of Albanian celebrities where viewers are urged to 'go to UK and get rich', helping to fuel an influx of drug workers into Britain.
The live-stream tours of cannabis factories, claiming to be in the UK, are viewed by tens of thousands of people at a time. They boast of how much workers can make working in illegal cannabis farms.
In one video, which cites Birmingham, two Albanian online celebrities, brothers Aleks and Dor Visha, discuss a cannabis farm harvest that has allegedly taken place. “He is really powerful in Birmingham,” Aleks says at the start of the video, reports The Express.
Approached with screenshots from the investigation, a West Midlands Police spokesperson told BirminghamLive detectives "know that drug dealers are active online" and "use a range of methods to bring those involved in the illegal supply of drugs to justice, whether online or on the streets of the West Midlands."
Urging anyone with intel on "illegal drugs in their area" to get in touch on 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, the force addressed the "real harm" of drugs to the region's communities.
Its devastation, whether leaving those involved dead, exploited or in prison, is one that's been illustrated time and time again across the West Midlands. Only in 2020 an Albanian national, and loving dad-of-three, was fatally injured in a fire as he became trapped inside a padlocked cannabis factory.
As fire crews tried to pry open the farm's shutters, they noticed padlocks fitted both to the outside and inside of the unit. A stud wall had also been placed behind the shutters, with a forklift truck blocking further entry.
Margaritis Xhindi - a 43-year-old who had been working as a 'gardener' - perished a day after the fatal blaze on Premier Trading Estate, leaving his family heartbroken. His brother Ymer Xhindi, alongside Mariglen Nela, went on the run for almost three years after the inferno ripped through the industrial unit and exposed their lucrative drugs den hiding a total of 560 cannabis plants, potentially worth up to £369,000.
When eventually caught, the pair were both sentenced for producing cannabis and jailed for one year. Only recently another Albanian, who had come to the country to grow cannabis on a separate farm, grovelled before Birmingham's crown court after he was rumbled.
Xhesi Hajdari was arrested after falling from the roof of a home in Acocks Green when police came to execute a warrant. Inside the property on Westfield Road, officers uncovered 150 cannabis plants worth an estimated £100,000.
Speaking via an interpreter, the 22-year-old, of no fixed address, told the court "sorry to the UK and sorry to the court" as he was jailed for seven months for admitting his role in the supply of cannabis.
Approached about concerns over social media posts glamourizing cannabis cultivation in Britain, a Meta spokesperson said “buying, selling or soliciting drugs is not allowed on our platforms; our teams use a mix of technology and human review to remove this content as quickly as possible, and we work with the police and youth organisations to get better at detection.
“We’ve also worked with industry experts to tackle the issue of people smuggling for a number of years, and when we find content coordinating this illegal activity we remove it from our platforms.”
