GB News has exposed Albanian crime gangs' brazen new service to set up illegal cannabis farms in homes across the UK.
Gangs are now advertising on social media, offering a "one-stop shop" to construct the illegal grows.
Posing as legitimate construction teams, the gangs will arrive with vans full of cannabis seedlings, as well as hydroponic kits and heat lamps.
Within hours of arriving at a residential address, the criminal construction squads can convert whole rooms into cannabis nurseries.
GB News has obtained multiple videos showing the slick new criminal enterprise at work.
The gangs rewire the electrics within a property, to power the many heat lamps and irrigation system needed to assist the growing process.
The gangs even insulate the property, lining the rooms with silver screed to keep the heat in and help prevent police helicopters and drones from detecting the tell-tale heat loss through the roofs of buildings used to grow cannabis.
Other sinister videos show bars across the windows and doors that the gangs also erect to prevent rival criminals from robbing the cannabis grows, or to hinder police if they attempt to raid the properties.
Once the plants have fully grown and been harvested and sold off, the crime gangs will even provide a clear-up service, deconstructing the farms, emptying the rooms and returning the homes to normal.
One organised crime source told GB News: "This is utterly brazen.
"The crime gangs have evolved in their sophistication.
"If you are tempted to enter the world of illegal drugs, you don't need any expert knowledge.
"Just pay the gangs a share of your profits, and they'll provide you with everything you need, from plants, to pots, to heat lamps."
CRIME - READ MORE:
- Clapham pub shooting victim named by Met Police as 25-year-old bus driver
- Elderly woman forced to watch as intruders steal belongings from her home
- 'Intimidating' woman, 38, clambers over stadium seats to grope schoolgirl - but won't face jail
GB News understands the social media adverts are being aimed directly at the UK's 150,000-strong Albanian population.
Albanian crime gangs now control the vast majority of cannabis crime in the UK, slowly taking over the illicit trade from Vietnamese crime gangs over the past decade.
The illegal trade in cannabis is enormous, totalling more than £2.5billion a year.
For street level dealers, the trade in cannabis is even more lucrative than dealing in class-A drugs like cocaine.
As a result, cannabis crime is responsible for fuelling much of the gang violence on UK streets, as criminals fight for a share in the illicit trade.
Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter
