A report by the British newspaper Daily Mail sheds light on an issue that has circulated between the two countries for years: the flow of money suspected to come from criminal activity in Britain into investments in Albania. According to the report, action against properties and agreements to share the value of confiscated assets between London and Tirana are making it harder to move this capital into the Albanian market.
The focus of the British report
Daily Mail focuses on the so-called “London Boys,” claiming that some of the money obtained in England from cocaine trafficking and cannabis cultivation is later invested in Albania.
At the center of the article are investments in real estate and tourist facilities, including luxury hotels. According to the British newspaper, these investments have been a visible channel for bringing money into the economy.
Seizures and the agreement with the British side
The report also mentions SPAK’s action against properties suspected of deriving from Albanian organized crime in Great Britain. It also highlights an agreement between the British authorities and the Agency for the Administration of Seized and Confiscated Assets.
According to the official version presented in the article, confiscated properties in Albania or England, when sold, will see the proceeds split 50-50 between the two countries. This scheme aims to formalize the institutional benefit from blocked assets, but at the same time raises questions about the real effectiveness of striking criminal networks beyond the reported figures.
What assets have been seized
Risena Xhaja, head of the Agency for the Administration of Seized and Confiscated Assets, presented Daily Mail with a catalogue of around 2,500 properties and assets worth more than 28 million euros, seized over the past decade after they were suspected of having been purchased with money from criminal activity.
These include hotels, villas, seaside tourist complexes and coastal apartments in various parts of the country. The agency’s data show that by June 2026, 2,500 assets worth more than 28 million euros had been seized, while 514 of them had been confiscated, with a value of more than 6.5 million euros.
How some of the confiscated properties are being used
The report also looks at how some of these assets are being managed. One confiscated hotel has been assigned to the Ministry of Defence for use by officers for holidays and training conferences.
Another property in Tirana has been turned into a public gallery. The very fact that the agency’s offices are located in a confiscated property belonging to a person convicted of prostitution is used in the article as symbolism for the way the state claims to be returning assets taken from crime to public use.
After the British report, two issues remain at the center: how real the blow to criminal capital is, and how transparent the administration is of the assets that pass into state hands.
The seizure figures provide a picture of broad institutional activity, but the decisive proof remains the final result: how many assets are ultimately confiscated, how they are used, and what concrete impact they have on curbing dirty money in Albania.