An Albanian ‘gun trafficker’ is walking the streets after being let out on bail as he fights extradition – while a fugitive killer was able to roam free for five years posing as a refugee.
Alban Gjidiaj, 28, is wanted by prosecutors in his home country in connection with an alleged plot to smuggle eight guns and a stash of bullets from Albania to sell to UK-based gangs.
He was arrested earlier this year by the Met Police on a warrant from Albanian special prosecutors before being granted bail after offering a £5,000 surety.
The decision to keep him on the streets of London will raise eyebrows given the seriousness of the charges against him. If convicted, he faces a 17-year prison sentence. He told the Mail he denied the charges and vowed to extradition.
In a second shocking example of Britain’s broken immigration system, an Albanian thug who shot a man in a cafe was able to sneak into the UK illegally and lodge an asylum claim – despite being a wanted fugitive.
Mikel Hoxha, 33, is still here seven years after arriving in a lorry – five of which he spent as a free man after officials failed to realise he was being hunted.
He went on to be jailed in absentia for 17 years by an Albanian court for ‘attempted premeditated murder’ while remaining at liberty in Britain.
When Hoxha was finally arrested in Cardiff in September, 2023, he was on immigration bail and in the process of appealing the refusal of his asylum claim.
He has been in custody ever since – with his lawyers attempting to fight his extradition using the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Hoxha’s legal team is using Article 8 – the right to a family life – to claim that his extradition would harm his partner and two young children, who were born in 2019 and 2022 after his illegal entry to the UK. Hoxha’s partner is also seeking asylum.
Alban Gjidiaji is wanted by prosecutors in his home country in connection with an alleged plot to smuggle weapons and ammunition from Albania to sell to UK gangs
Albanian police seized a large haul of firearms in the port of Durres
Mikel Hoxha, 33, is still in the UK seven years after arriving in a lorry – five of which he spent as a free man after officials failed to realise he was being hunted for attempted murder
Alban Gjidiaj – who was pictured by the Mail driving a white Mercedes GLC AMG worth around £20,000 – is due to appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court for an extradition hearing on December 4, 2025.
Prosecutors from Albania’s Special Structure against Corruption and Organised Crime (SPAK) accuse Gjidiaj of being part of a gang that arranged for a shipment of guns and ammunition to be sent to Britain from the port city of Durrës, according to court records.
An Albanian expert on organised crime, who requested anonymity, told the Mail: ‘By dismantling this criminal organisation, SPAK prosecutors have saved lives.
‘These lethal weapons, with serial numbers removed, were destined to end up in the hands of Albanians involved in organised crime in the UK.
‘They were intended to protect cannabis farms across the country, which are often targeted by rival gangs.
‘They were also likely to be used by individuals guarding so-called ”safe houses” – locations used to store cocaine before distribution.
‘This operation not only disrupted a major trafficking route but also potentially prevented violent conflicts from escalating in both the UK and Albania.’
A source at the Interpol office in the Albanian capital, Tirana, added: ‘Due to such dangerous criminal activity of this criminal organisation with a devastating impact in the UK, it was a priority for us to locate others who were not in Albanian territory.’
Prosecutors have also implicated Gjidiaj’s 33-year-old brother, Almir, in the plot.
He was arrested at a hotel on the Islas del Rosario, a small, scenic group of islands off the coast of Colombia.
A search found eight pistol-type firearms bearing the brand names Glock, Herstal and Browning, four pistol magazines and 201 9mm calibre cartridges hidden inside a wooden table.
According to prosecutors, Almir was the leader of a UK-based subgroup within the larger trafficking network.
He was responsible for managing logistics and transportation for the illegal sale of medium and long-range firearms on the black market, it is claimed.
Almir previously owned a cleaning company in London, according to Companies House records.
His brother last appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on August 1, where his bail was extended until his full extradition hearing on December 4.
Approached by the Daily Mail on Friday, he denied the charges and vowed to fight his extradition
Gjidiaj is subject to a range of bail conditions, including staying at his home between the hours of 7pm and 7am, reporting regularly to a local police station and not applying for any travel documents. He is on an electronic tag.
A press statement released by SPAK in July states that a van with British licence plates was stopped by officers at a checkpoint at Durrës port on April 10, 2023.
A search found eight pistol-type firearms bearing the brand names Glock, Herstal and Browning, four pistol magazines and 201 9mm calibre cartridges hidden inside a wooden table.
The serial numbers on the weapons had been removed, SPAK said.
The statement named Gjidiaj as playing an ‘assisting’ role in the conspiracy.
SPAK said a further 24 pistols, one Kalashnikov and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were later recovered in a raid on a house belonging to another defendant.
In the case of his compatriot, cafe killer Mikel Hoxha, the Home Office has refused to say how the criminal was able to apply for asylum despite being a fugitive – with campaigners criticising its policy of issuing a blanket ‘no comment’ on all individual cases.
‘The Home Office has failed yet again, and it is a democratic abomination that they continue to hide behind ”no comment” responses rather than provide the public with full transparency and details,’ said Robert Bates from the Centre for Migration Control.
Meanwhile, Alp Mehmet, chair of MigrationWatch UK, criticised the Home Office’s tendency to ‘button up when revealing facts might show up past failures’.
‘The public have a right to know why this dangerous criminal was able to string out his stay for five years having arrived illegally before being locked up,’ he said.
On June 6, 2018, Hoxha opened fire on a man called Admir Haruni after they had an argument at a cafe in the Tomorri Hotel in the south-western Albanian city of Gramsh.
He fired several bullets, hitting Mr Haruni in the leg.
In an intercepted phone conversation on June 7, Hoxha’s father was heard telling a contact how his son had ‘shot someone in the leg’ and was wanted for ‘illegal possession of firearms and attempted murder’.
Court documents seen by Daily Mail revealed that Hoxha fled Albania shortly after the incident, initially escaping to neighboring North Macedonia.
He then paid people smugglers in Belgium to enter the UK illegally inside a lorry later in 2018, before claiming asylum on August 8 on the basis he was fleeing a ‘blood feud’.
The guns were wrapped in plastic and on their way to the streets of Britain
On April 23, 2021, while Hoxha was still in the UK, a court jailed him for 17 years in absentia after finding him guilty of ‘attempted premeditated murder’ and ‘unlicensed possession of firearms’.
From his British hideaway, the thug then appointed his own Albanian lawyer to conduct an appeal, which succeeded in having his offence reclassified as ‘intentional serious injury’ and his sentence reduced to four years.
Despite being the subject of two trials in Albania, he was only arrested on September 20, 2023 – five years and a month after his initial asylum claim.
At the time, he was living in a £170,000 semi-detached house in Cardiff.
Hoxha’s lawyers attempted to block his extradition under Article 3 of the ECHR, claiming there was a real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment in Albania due to poor prison conditions.
This was rejected by district judge Tan Ikram – sitting at Westminster Magistrates’ Court – who noted that Albania was a signatory to the ECHR.
He also described claims Hoxha was at risk from a ‘feud’ as ‘unconvincing’ and found the public interest in extraditing him outweighed any Article 8 considerations.
Mr Ikram referred the extradition case to the Secretary of State earlier this month, but Hoxha – who is currently at Wandsworth Prison, has the right to seek permission to appeal.
Currently, 14 Albanian nationals arrested while hiding out in the UK are facing extradition proceedings at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
The Home Office said it was its ‘longstanding policy’ not to comment on ‘individual cases’.
rory.tingle@dailymail.co.uk
