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As the blacked-out Mercedes with British plates pulls up at the kerb a man in his early twenties can be seen at the wheel.<\/p>\n
Still with barely enough hair on his cheeks to warrant a full shave and acne on his chin, he leans back and ashes a cigarette out the window.<\/p>\n
\u201cI bought this from working a couple of months in London,\u201d he tells us adding, with a smirk on his face, \u201cI was in \u2018construction\u2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
We all knew this wasn\u2019t the truth. Regardless of how hard-pushed Britain\u2019s builders might be for labour, there was no way this lanky man in a designer tracksuit was earning enough to buy a high-end Merc from a short stint in a hi-vis vest. He got it from working in a cannabis farm.<\/p>\n
The Merc driver was one of the many “London guys” we spotted during our trip to Albania this month. From the mountains of the north to the busy streets of Tirana their displays of wealth were everywhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Almost every time we spoke to a person with relatives in Britain, cannabis farms were mentioned, either the fact they wanted to make it clear their loved ones weren’t working in them or simply to state that they were.\u00a0<\/p>\n
READ MORE <\/strong> ‘I’m planning to leave Albania and get a small boat to UK as soon as I’m 16’<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cHalf my relatives work in construction and the other half work in drug houses,\u201d a teenager told us in a typical exchange. It was mind-blowing how mundane it was.<\/p>\n Whether we like it or not Britain has for years been the biggest consumer of drugs in Europe. Our large and lucrative market is a magnet for drug dealers from all over the world, so it’s no surprise Albanian gangs, who\u2019ve already taken over the cocaine trade, would focus on the UK.<\/p>\n But it was still shocking how mainstream an activity once considered utterly taboo by people in the former Communist bloc nation had become.<\/p>\n Young men are dropping out of university degrees to cross the Channel and risk death in drug production while average hardworking Albanians struggle to buy homes in a market distorted by money laundering dealers.<\/p>\n The option of marrying a rich drug house worker has even reduced the chances of young Albanian women being targets for sex traffickers.<\/p>\n Don’t miss… <\/strong> ![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/78\/590x\/secondary\/5075660.jpg?r=1700558574764\")
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\u2018I smuggle 6,000 migrants a year into UK on small boats – business is booming'[REVEAL] <\/strong>
Albanian community becomes ‘ghost town’ as young men flock to work in UK[INSIGHT] <\/strong>
Number of migrants being kicked out of Britain soars as deportations double[ANALYSIS] <\/strong><\/p>\n\n