ON an Albanian hilltop, a restaurant sits majestically surrounded by olive groves and grape vines.
At the end of a long, winding road carved out of the rugged mountain landscape, Solis Farm is not only a popular tourist attraction but a remarkable feat of engineering.
No CreditLuxury hilltop restaurant Solis Farm in Baldushk, Albania[/caption]
News Group Newspapers LtdFranc Copja, pictured after being arrested by Belgium police in 2023, is said to have ran the brothers’ entire drugs operation from a house in Tottenham[/caption]
News Group Newspapers LtdHis brother Hajdar worked on the logistics from Albania[/caption]
Just 20 minutes from the capital of Tirana, it has unrivalled panoramic views. But despite its remote location, when The Sun visited last week, security seemed unusually tight for a family restaurant, and CCTV lined the steep approach.
Little wonder when you consider the multi-million pound venture is said to have been built on the misery of Britain’s out-of-control drugs trade.
Two thousand miles from Albania, the two drug-lord brothers behind the complex ran their Europe-wide operation from a less salubrious location — a terraced house in London.
In a typical two-up, two-down in Tottenham, Franc Copja was never off his phone, directing an army of generals who followed his every order, causing misery, mayhem and murder.
He spent his days calling drug contacts in South America, before setting up payments to crooked customs officers and dock workers to smuggle millions of pounds of cocaine into Britain — much of it hidden in horseboxes.
With more Brits than ever snorting coke, and prices in the UK double what they are on the continent, Copja and his equally notorious brother Hajdar had the market cornered.
But it all fell to pieces when 50kg of cocaine vanished before it found its way to their Tottenham lair, sparking a deadly drugs war.
Triple execution
The missing narcotics led to a feud with a rival Albanian gang that left four dead, and included an enemy assassinated in a daylight shooting which shocked Belgium.
Franc Copja, 33, fled from London to Dubai after the murder and was extradited to Belgium in 2023.
Spooked by his brother’s fate, Hajdar, 40, is believed to be on the run from Dubai, where he lived near Franc in a villa. Sources have told us he may be hiding out with drug contacts in South America.
The brothers are wanted for three murders and international drug trafficking in their native country — and the prosecution’s star witness belongs to the rival gang who shed light on their UK operation.
A source told us: “It’s really explosive stuff. Never has there been such an insight into how Albanian gangs run their operations in Britain.
“They were paying off officials at ports and making millions.
“They laundered cash back in Albania through ‘respectable’ business enterprises, but now their empire is set to be blown apart.”
In Albania, special anti-corruption prosecutors at an organisation known as SPAK have seized assets belonging to the brothers, who became so powerful they dictated the price of cocaine across Europe.
They include £10million in cryptocurrency, land, villas, companies and bank accounts.
We can reveal that the haul includes Solis Farm in the village of Baldushk. When we went to see the restaurant, just one smart Mercedes sat outside and it was being looked after by a “caretaker”.
Locals told how they have been hired to care for the vast fields of olive trees while unpicked grapes sit rotting on vines.
It’s really explosive stuff. Never has there been such an insight into how Albanian gangs run their operations in Britain
Source
A short drive away in Albania’s capital, four top-end apartments believed to belong to the brothers have also been seized.
Here, rich residents with sports cars enjoy the luxury of a shared pool. Albanian, British and US flags flutter on poles. Alarmingly, the brothers were brazen enough to have operated in full view of authorities, sinking cash into a villa called Gjuta 500 yards from the presidential office of the country’s Prime Minister, Edi Rama.
YouTubeEndrit Alibej was one of the victims of a triple execution and was killed after being hit by a hail of Kalashnikov bullets[/caption]
YouTubeArben Dylgjeri was another victim who died in the execution in the central Albanian village of Bradashesh in 2018[/caption]
Authorities say everything they own will be confiscated by the state then sold at auction if they are convicted.
The brothers launched their criminal careers in the so-called gangland city of Elbasan, a town in central Albania known for its violence.
They started with small-scale drug deals in Italy in 2006, say prosecutors at SPAK, but quickly extended operations to Belgium and the Netherlands, plus the UK, settling in Tottenham.
They are said to have paid off port staff to wave through lorries and horseboxes loaded with drugs.
SPAK prosecutors Altin Dumani and Vladimir Mara said of the gang: “It had the capacity to directly influence the price of cocaine in the European markets and to manage large quantities of narcotics in short periods of time.”
Hail of bullets
But the writing was on the wall for the Copja siblings after Franc moved to Britain and the 50kg of cocaine went missing.
It led to a fallout with a rival gang, the Alibej family, as each blamed the other for stealing the drugs.
Albanian prosecutors claim that the brothers soon took revenge with a triple execution.
Endrit Alibej, Arben Dylgjeri and Turkish citizen Erdal Durunay died in their Range Rover when they were hit by a hail of Kalashnikov bullets in the central Albanian village of Bradashesh in 2018.
SPAK also believes Franc Copja is the man behind the contract killing of the head of the Alibej clan, Ardi Spahiu, in Belgium.
In a crime that shocked the country, Spahiu had just left a cafe in November 2020 when he was shot down in a hail of 18 bullets. He was hit eight times.
The brothers are then said to have gone on to play a part in 14 other hits or attempted hits on rivals, say Albanian officials.
As the body count grew, members of the Alibej gang turned supergrass, and now murder victim Endrit’s brother is the key witness in the case against the Copjas.
Erion Alibej told a court in Albania how he was recruited by the pair to travel to London because his older brother Endrit owed them a drug debt.
Alibej, who was smuggled to London in the back of a truck, described how the Copjas’ entire drugs operation was run by Franc from a house in Tottenham.
Hajdar worked on the logistics from Albania.
He said: “I insisted on going to England to work because Endriti had debts and I wanted to help pay them off. I went by truck.
They were paying off officials at ports and making millions. They laundered cash back in Albania through ‘respectable’ business enterprises, but now their empire is set to be blown apart
Source
“In England I went to Franc Copja’s house, who lived in Tottenham and he checked work by phone. At first I stayed with an uncle because he had an idea of what kind of work I would do.
“I was able to get supplies and sell cocaine, but I encountered difficulties getting home. Hajdar Copja was a very safe road horse transporter (with drugs), starting from Germany, all the way to Belgium and the Netherlands.
“I managed to pay off a very large debt that Endrit had at the time. I did a good and big job. So much so that I caught attention.”
AlamyFranc directed an army of generals who followed his every order, causing misery, mayhem and murder from a typical two-up, two-down in Tottenham[/caption]
No CreditA short drive away in Albania’s capital, top-end apartments believed to belong to the brothers have been seized by cops[/caption]
Held hostage
He described the London operation as being at a “time of crisis” after cops intercepted drugs hidden in a horsebox.
Sources say that while the brothers had so much cash they could afford to lose one in three drug cargos, they were furious when the 50kg of cocaine vanished before it reached London.
Alibej described to a court in Albania how the courier who lost the consignment was held hostage for two weeks and beaten black and blue.
The Copjas’ criminal empire was brought down after cops intercepted the encrypted messaging app Sky ECC in 2021, which the brothers had used to exchange hundreds of details.
Coded communications provided chilling insights into murders and attempted killings and included pictures and videos of torture, says Europol.
Franc Copja also worked hand-in-hand with fellow Albanian gangster Ervis Cela, 41, one of the most ruthless players in the cocaine trade, allegedly smuggling 28 tons of coke from Paraguay to Antwerp and Hamburg between 2020 and 2021.
The drugs were found hidden in soap crates, paint cans and industrial glue.
Cela was wanted in Italy for torturing and murdering a rival pimp when he was arrested in Albania in June this year.
Britain’s drug trade is a lucrative market, with a kilo of cocaine worth an estimated £40,000, compared to £20,000 in Europe.
The country is the largest consumer of coke per capita in Europe, and the second largest in the world behind Australia, according to a 2023 report by the international Organisation For Economic Co-operation and Development.
Meanwhile, in Albania, criminal gangs are injecting so much cash into the economy, they have distorted the financial market, according to one expert.
Zef Preci, who is head of the Albanian Center For Economic Research, said: “Albania’s organised crime groups have increased their wealth and are using every means to inject it into the country’s economy through various money-laundering schemes.
“While globally, such illicit funds are estimated to account for between two and five per cent of GDP, in Albania the level is believed to be significantly higher.”
The Copja-Cela gang were so awash with cash that they struggled to launder it fast enough.
Encrypted messages show that Ervis Cela suggested they bury euros in Albania under the roots of olive trees — just like those at Copja’s vast restaurant complex.
News Group Newspapers LtdHajdar, 40, is believed to be on the run from Dubai, where he lived near Franc in a villa[/caption]
News Group Newspapers LtdCocaine belonging to the brothers seized by German police in Hanover[/caption]
No CreditThe luxury villa in central Tirana, Albania, owned by the Copja brothers[/caption]