Unmasking the Truth: How Workmen on Your Street Exposed Albanian Drug Kingpins

A routine day turned into chaos on Wellesley Road in Middlesbrough as men in hi-vis jackets dug into electricity lines, triggering small explosions. The workers vanished, leaving behind a fire that sparked an extensive police investigation. Revealed as part of an Albanian crime network, these individuals, masquerading as laborers, siphoned millions of pounds of electricity to power vast cannabis farms—valued at £21 million. Under the guise of Elev8 Civils, they exploited a legitimate façade to dig for drug-related operations across 100 farms. Recently sentenced to a combined 32 years in prison, the investigation has exposed the dark allure of the Albanian grip on the UK drug trade, with many kingpins still at large, evoking chilling implications for the ongoing battle against organized crime.