Albanian drug dealers are selling mobile phones linked to their customer base on TikTok for more than £300,000, an investigation reveals.
Criminal gangs have built up such lucrative ‘lines’ of British users buying drugs via a single phone number that the device itself can be worth many hundreds of thousands of pounds.
And they are advertising the phones on social media to other Albanian criminals in the UK keen to benefit from a ready-made stream of customers.
The criminals even offer potential buyers the chance to test the phones before they commit, and insist that the mobiles are ‘safe from law enforcement interference.’
The Mail identified one account, named ‘Albanian Postcode’ which offers a phoneline based in Brighton and Hove for sale for £300,000.
The page promises the number receives orders for up to 900 grams of cocaine each week.
It states in Albanian: ‘The number is switched on for 24 hours for workers (drug dealers) to deliver by taxis.
‘We can offer this number to prospective buyers for a week or two if they pay a deposit.
‘Only serious buyers get in touch.’
Another, named ‘shqipepostcode1’ or ‘Albanian Postcode1, purports to have a phone based in Barking, east London that received between 350 and 400 orders for cocaine each week.
‘Mobile number on sale in Barking and Dagenham,’ the advert states in Albanian.
‘Price of the number: £220K but we can drop that price. “Tickets” (cocaine) we have sold all the time on 50s (half gram of cocaine). We give this phone to be tested up to two weeks. We are selling the number due to not managing it any longer.’
Another advert from an account named ‘shqipet_e_pikave’, or Albanian ‘Points’ – a slang term for cocaine – posted nine separate adverts for phones with existing customer bases across Britain.
One stated: ‘Working (drugs) number for sale in Gloucester. Price 140,000 sterling. Estimated sale of 250 doses per week. With a guarantee with the right to test it. You can monitor for a day the person who has the phone.’
The Mail identified one account, named ‘Albanian Postcode’ which offers a phoneline based in Brighton and Hove for sale for £300,000.
Another profile, named ‘shqipepostcode1’ or ‘Albanian Postcode1, purporting to have a phone based in Barking, east London that received between 350 and 400 orders for cocaine each week. ‘Mobile number on sale in Barking and Dagenham,’ the advert states in Albanian. ‘Price of the number: £220K but we can drop that price. “Tickets” (cocaine) we have sold all the time on 50s (half gram of cocaine). We give this phone to be tested up to two weeks. We are selling the number due to not managing it any longer
The Mail found other adverts purporting to be selling phones covering Manchester, Kent, Essex, Brighton, Southampton and across the Midlands and greater London.
Another advert on the same account offered a phone for sale in Leicester for £90,000.
It continued: ‘In one week from the contacts we sell 120/140 pika (grams of cocaine) and 750 grams of grass (cannabis).
‘This number is without any problem (from law enforcement). With the right to test it and guarantee. Get in touch for more information.’
Other posts on the China-based platform include adverts to recruit Albanian drug runners in the UK.
The Mail found such adverts purporting to be selling phones covering Manchester, Kent, Essex, Brighton, Southampton and across the Midlands and greater London.
An Albanian taxi driver who once worked as a drug runner in Birmingham explained that he would deliver up to 30 grams of cocaine a day across the city.
The man, who has now returned to Tirana and asked to remain anonymous, said he would receive a call from the ‘boss’ controlling the ‘line’ ordering him to drop the drugs to a buyer.
‘I would go into the city centre of Birmingham about eight times a day to deliver,’ he said.
‘Clients would get into my car, I would drive a few minutes and do the deal then they would get out.
‘One of my clients was a doctor. He took lines of cocaine in my car, saying he wanted to have as much as possible because his wife would take it all once he got home.
‘My boss had a supply chain that ran through the Netherlands and employed 12 drivers like me across Birmingham.
‘I used to get £1,700 a week for this, tax free, with the petrol paid for me.’
Klevis Arifi, 21, and Asllan Cani, 28, were jailed in September for a combined five years after police seized £35,000 of cocaine from their flat in Maidstone, Kent.
Leke Gjergjaj, Genald Sekja, Julian Palushi, Eugen Aliaj, Ricardo Rupi, and Pjeter Gjergjaj were jailed for more than 77 years after Scotland Yard recovered a shotgun, 36kg of cannabis and £500,000 worth of cocaine in Hackney, northeast London.
Albanian gangsters smuggle hundreds of millions of pounds earned through illicit activity out of Britain back into their home country every year, the National Crime Agency said.
Frank Glen, the agency’s Western Balkans threat lead, said Albanian organised criminal gangs (OCGs) were highly sophisticated and had a significant presence in South America where they could buy high-purity cocaine at source.
‘Albanian OCGs typically operate in loose networks and forge links with other OCGs to commit offences and they have a reputation for reliability and delivery,’ he said.
‘They are generally very quick to move their illicit profits back to Albania for investment or to safely hide from authorities.’
The higher tier criminal networks often station lower-ranking members in countries like the UK where there is a huge customer base for drugs, he added.
A law enforcement source said Albanians gangs were now firmly established as running substantial drugs operations across the length of the UK – aside from Liverpool, where more traditional British gangs still dominate.
The authorities work with social media platforms but policing pages that offer illegal services is like ‘whack-a-mole’ with new profiles emerging every time others are shut down, they added.
In September, six Albanian drug dealers were jailed for more than 77 years after Scotland Yard recovered a shotgun, 36kg of cannabis and £500,000 worth of cocaine in Hackney, northeast London.
Leke Gjergjaj, Genald Sekja, Julian Palushi, Eugen Aliaj, Ricardo Rupi, and Pjeter Gjergjaj were jailed at Snaresbrook Crown Court on September 12.
Ervis Doksani, 22, was jailed last month over possession with intent to supply class A drugs, after he was caught with of 108 grams of cocaine in Brighton.
Klevis Arifi, 21, and Asllan Cani, 28, were jailed in September for a combined five years after police seized £35,000 of cocaine from their flat in Maidstone, Kent.
The UK has one of the highest rates of cocaine use in the world with more than 1,000 deaths per year.
A spokesman from TikTok said it had banned the accounts identified by the Mail.
The platform employs tens of thousands of safety professionals who speak more than 70 languages, including Albanian, and removes most illegal content before it is reported, they added.
