Albanian gangsters who have cornered the market for cannabis in the UK using farms protected with booby traps are escaping prosecution by claiming to be slaves, The Times can reveal.
Specialist “gardeners” smuggled into the country illegally are set up in fortified houses and warehouses protected by hidden barbed-wire mesh and staircases rigged to fall beneath intruders.
Gardeners arrested in raids on the farms frequently use systems designed to protect victims of modern slavery, allowing them to avoid being taken into custody. Police have found the same suspects at new locations and the National Crime Agency (NCA) said that the claims of victimhood were “really contentious”.
The gangs have employed violence, guns and kidnap to wrest control of the country’s cannabis supply over the past
