Police say they are cracking down on Albanian criminal gangs who smuggle people into the UK and force them to work in cannabis farms.

Greater Manchester Police arrested 46 Albanian nationals in 2023 and police recovered more than £10m of cannabis.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said people were forced to work in appalling conditions while their criminal bosses made considerable wealth.

Det Supt Joe Harrop said groups from the western Balkans were the focus of an operation involving police forces from across the UK.

Det Supt Harrop said: "Often, Albanian gangs have bought people to work in the UK in places like cannabis farms.

"These are awful conditions. They live and sleep within the farms and can't leave.

"They maintain the plants which are often at various stages of growth in different rooms.

"The top tiers of these crime groups earn a large amount of money".

He said the groups will buy "top end cars" and designer clothes and watches, and then go back to their home country and "flaunt that wealth", which encourages "another generation of criminals to come to the UK".

As part of an investigation between May and November 2023, officers became aware of an Albanian man who was believed to be controlling others in large-scale production of cannabis across the region.

By identifying the higher level gang members police were able to make several arrests among the network, they said.

In 2022 police made 10,788 seizures of cannabis, and in the following year the figure rose to 13,247.

In September 2024, four men from Albania received long jail sentences for operating cannabis factories.

GMP is working with councils, schools and the NHS in Greater Manchester on drug treatment and education as part of the strategy.

Dr Jon Davies, a criminologist at the University of Manchester, said: "In Bury, there has been evidence that restaurants and travel agents have been helping to set up a business front to launder the money.

"Of course, it unlikely that victims will be in the back office of that business or shop but they'll be located in houses.

"There's a whole operation there to stop law enforcement from detecting that activity."

Figures from the Ministry of Justice show that, at the end of March 2024, more than 1,200 Albanians were being held in prisons in England and Wales - more than any other foreign nationality.

Amy Bond, chief operating officer of the modern slavery charity Causeway, said: "The majority of people trapped in modern slavery are trapped in labour exploitation, so that's things like cannabis farms.

"There has been a switch from Vietnamese gangs to Albanian.

"The gangs will bring people in to these environment and promise them a job.

"The victims then become involved in illegal labour and can't exit because they're fearful of their own prosecution."

(Source: BBC)