Albanian teenagers are secretly entering the UK and joining drug gangs with the aim of being sent to prison and speeding up their asylum claims, MailOnline can reveal.
Desperate young men are queuing up for coffee shops used as fronts by gangs such as the notorious Hellbanianz and are being recruited to work on cannabis farms or smuggle drugs into Britain.
Closely monitored by gangs, the teenagers work to pay off their debt to smugglers before sending cash back home.
If arrested by police, the men face jail time because the mob's lawyers are using a legal loophole to prevent deportation back to Albania, claiming they were victims of modern slavery.
Albanians make up the largest proportion of arrivals to the UK from a single country, with small boats accounting for 28% last year – equivalent to 12,561 people.
Albanian gangs have seized control of the UK's cocaine economy over the past 20 years after forming an alliance with Latin American drug cartels.
Among them, the Hellbanianz gang located on the Gascoigne estate in Barking, East London.
Arrogant and unafraid of the police, masked gangsters from Hellbanianz even share music videos showing armored vehicles equipped with heavy machine guns parading around a London apartment building.
The Hellbanianz alone are believed to traffic millions of pounds worth of drugs into the country every year.
Other smaller Albanian gangs and independent agents are also establishing themselves in Britain.
In January, a drug dealer who arrived in the UK on a migrant boat was found running a £649,000 cannabis farm in a historic 15-room Scottish mansion.
The region in northeastern Albania near the border with Kosovo has the highest proportion of its population living illegally in the UK or seeking asylum, compared to any other region in the former communist country.
To combat economic issues, the UK government recently announced £8.4 million in funding to be invested in some of the poorest areas of the country, including job creation and community programs in the poverty-stricken region of Kukesi.
The new mayor of Kukes, Albert Halilaj, has pledged to spend much of the UK money to persuade people to return, offering tax breaks and tourism-related grants, which he sees as key to boosting the region's economy.
But young people are desperate and are leaving the country to create a new life in Britain.
However, Albanians who wish to remain in the UK can seek refuge and advice from charities, including the Shpresa Project charity which promotes the integration of members of the Albanian-speaking community in the UK.
