The Albanian 'King of Instagram' who tells his followers how to run cannabis farms in UK: Influencer Kozak Braci posts videos 'glorifying' drug trade by offering tips on how to sneak in Britain illegally and make £6,000-a-month
An Albanian influencer known as the 'King of Instagram' gave his followers tips on sneaking into Britain and making '£6,000 a month' working in the illegal drugs trade.
Kozak Braci, who has more than half a million followers on TikTok and Instagram, shared livestreamed tours of cannabis farms as he discussed how to profit from criminality in the UK.
'It's great to stay in the cannabis house. I can live there without a problem,' he tells viewers in one the clips.
Another video shows Braci asking a people smuggling 'expert' how they can sneak into Britain illegally inside a lorry.
'You know there are a lot of brothers and sisters in hardship. Can you show how to go there unnoticed, without being detected? How do they do it?' he asks.
Braci, who has more than half a million followers on TikTok and Instagram, poses with a Audi in a photo shared to social media
Popular Albanian influencer Kozak Braci has shared videos where he takes tours around cannabis farms
A man shows off a huge pile of cannabis buds during one of the farm tours
Graham Wettone, a former Met Police officer who was showed the videos by the Express, described them as 'glorifying the production of drugs in the UK' and 'enticing' potential criminals into Britain.
Braci claims to make £25,000 a month from his social media accounts, and regularly shares photos of him posing with expensive cars and designer gear.
One photo shows him standing next to a man in a black SUV in front of a house flying the Union flag.
The influencer, who has tattoos of AK-47s on his chest and right arm, is seen in another photo wearing a Chelsea shirt in front of a red Audi.
Dr Alexandros K Antoniou, an expert in social media law at the University of Essex, said it was 'astonishing' Instagram had not only let Braci share drug-related content but let him to become one of the biggest stars in Albania on its platform after doing so.
Braci was tracked down by the Express to a Communist-era block of flats in Albania's capital, TIrana.
He claimed the tours of cannabis farm were unplanned and he had stopped making such videos.
The influencer has tattoos of AK-47s on his chest and right arm and claims to make £25,000 a month from his social media accounts
The tours of cannabis farms consist of someone showing Braci around the sites as he comments on what he sees
The influencer said he did not endorse criminality and said some of his compatriots had gone to deal drugs in Britain 'because of a life filled with hardships'.
It emerged earlier this year that the Home Office plans to begin paying Albanian influencers to tell their followers not to come to Britain illegally.
In a modern-day update of the 'public information film', the £100,000 plan is designed to get messages through to 'hard to reach' groups who fall for lies peddled by people traffickers.
The scheme emerged in Downing Street from Cass Horowitz, the social media expert behind 'Brand Rishi'. But campaigners branded it 'toy town tinkering' and say it will have 'zero impact'.
Albanian gangsters now exert 'considerable control' over the UK cocaine market, according to a United Nations report, with violent criminals importing the drug from their counterparts in mainland Europe through ports in south-east England.
Notorious gangs include Hellbanianz, which is based in East London and crowds about its criminal activities on social media.
It recently emerged that 80 Albanian migrants have been sentenced to a total of 130 years in jail over the first four months of the year.
Albanian organised criminals have a substantial presence in the UK. Pictured are members of Hellbanianz, a gang based in London
In a Hellbanianz music video released in 2022, masked men are seen cruising around a London estate in an armoured fighting vehicle equipped with a .30 calibre machine gun
An alleged Hellbanianz member posts a picture of two gang members wearing red balaclavas emblazoned with the Albanian flag, while one brandishes a machine gun
Their crimes included murder, manslaughter, rape, firearms offences and kidnap.
The scale of the crime wave is putting pressure on the UK's already bursting prisons, with the Government forced to strike deals with Tirana to allow criminals to be deported before the end of their sentences.
However, some Albanian youngsters are sneaking into the UK and joining drugs gangs with the aim of getting sent to prison so they can claim to be victims of modern slavery and gain asylum, as MailOnline previously revealed.
TikTok said: 'TikTok works closely with UK law enforcement, the National Crime Agency and organisations such as STOP THE TRAFFIK to fight this industry-wide issue, and our steadfast efforts helped reduce the number of small boat crossings last year, according to Border Officials.
'We continue to strictly maintain a zero tolerance approach to human exploitation and proactively find over 95% of content we remove for breaking these rules.'
The platform prohibits content that facilitates human smuggling and trafficking and does not allow showing or promoting or facilitating the trade of drugs, a spokes person said.
Meta said: 'We have removed the violating content brought to our attention.
'Buying, selling or soliciting drugs is not allowed on our platforms; our teams use a mix of technology and human review to remove this content as quickly as possible, and we work with the police and youth organisations to get better at detection.
'We've also worked with industry experts to tackle the issue of people smuggling for a number of years, and when we find content coordinating this illegal activity we remove it from our platforms.'
Albanian gangsters now exert 'considerable control' over the UK cocaine market, according to a United Nations report
Piles of cash and cannabis buds shared by Hellbanianz, a gang based in London
