NEW thinking on curbing the use of illegal drugs is needed as control of the trade has been seized by Albanian gangs across the country, according to a former crime commissioner.
Kevin Hurley, a former Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner, told GB News: “The drugs trade is now ruthlessly controlled by Albanian gangs up and down the whole country, with the exception of Merseyside.
“The real issue is, what are we going to do about our supposed battle against drugs or do we continue to lose it as the Albanians increase their organised crime hold on the UK?
“Are we going to do something different and consider different approaches to managing drugs in society?”
In a discussion with Esther McVey and Philip Davies, he said: “These Albanians are here and they’re becoming strong, and they’re very vicious, equally matching the violence of these Merseyside gangsters.
“Maybe we need to take the profit out of this…the Albanians are not here by chance. They’re here because we are very soft in terms of our legislation and the way in which we proceed against gangsters.
“They’ve decided to come here because we’re easier to exploit than the French or in Belgium and so on. It’s as simple as that.”
Mr Hurley suggested that decriminalisation may be the only option left for the Government to tackle drug gangs.
He said: “I now see that we’re up against something we cannot deal with if we’re not prepared to resource it, then we need to look at how we could make it an option for people who wish to buy those different drugs.
“We let people buy alcohol, it kills hundreds of thousands a year, cigarettes are responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths a year.
“We need to think about this in another way, if we are not going to pump in another 100,000 cops and build extra prisons, extra courts.”
