A police woman stands outside the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s hospital in London, Britain, 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDY RAIN

Albanian crime gangs are assuming a leading role in the UK’s cocaine trade, the London Times reported on Thursday, citing new data from the police’s National Crime Agency – which reported on this phenomenon last year.

A table listing the 4,600 known crime gangs on the police’s radar showed Albanians “overtaking” Romanians for the first time in 2017.

British born gangs remain by far the most numerous, comprising 70 per cent of the total, followed by ethnic Pakistanis.

However, Albanian gangs have now moved into third place, the Times reported, up from eighth place in only three years.

Of other gangs, it said Chinese gangs had moved up from 12th to seventh place over the same period, while Iraqi gangs had moved up from 15th place to ninth.

Data show that 90 per cent of UK gang members are male, 70 per cent are from the UK but only 60 per cent are white, black and Asian ethnicities being heavily over-represented compared to their overall share of the population.

The data come from the NCA’s crime group mapping project.

In June 2017, the NCA’s annual report said Albanian gangs had gained “considerable control” over drug trafficking operations in the UK.

UK police have expressed concern before over the speedy rise of Albanian gangs in the UK, given their small numbers.

NCA deputy director general Matthew Horne told the BBC: “It’s very much a group that’s small in number but big in impact.

The 2017 NCA report stated that staff corruption at ports and airports was a “key vulnerability”, making it easier to smuggle in drugs and bring in illegal immigrants.

It also warned that criminals from the Balkans generally “are increasingly expanding their network of influence, forming direct relationships with cocaine suppliers in Latin America”.

While only 0.8 per cent of all crimes in the UK were committed by Albanians, the NCA report said their readiness to use serious violence was troubling.

UK media reported in April that the price of cocaine was fast dropping as mainly East European gangs competed for business.

Media said a wholesale kilogram that would have cost around £50,000 was now being sold for £30,000, and the purity had increased at street level because the price had dropped.

The drop in the cocaine price is being blamed for the surge in UK cocaine-related deaths, which doubled between 2012 and 2016 from 139 to 271.

Recent years have seen high profile convictions of Albanian criminals in the UK, including heroin and cocaine dealer Olsi Beheluli, jailed for 11 years in 2015 and Tristen Asllani, jailed for 25 years for drugs offences in 2016 – and who later became notorious for posing half-naked in jail and posting the pictures on social media.