A TERRIFYING stash of weapons destined for gangs on the streets of Britain has been seized after police smashed a gun-running gang.
Rapid-firing Glock pistols and a Kalashnikov assault rifle were among 25 firearms found in a swoop in Albania.
The weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were set to be sent to Albanian gangs in Britain who are fighting a turf war over drugs and prostitution in London.
Albanian State Police found the guns being prepared for shipment when masked and armed cops stormed a property in a suburb of the capital Tirana on Thursday.
Albanian police working with the UK’s National Crime Agency made five arrests as investigations continued following the discovery of the weapons cache this week.
And warrants were issued for the arrest of three more men still at large in the UK with links to the gang. Three Albanian men aged 21, 44 and 62 have been charged with international weapons smuggling.
The NCA worked with Albania’s Special Prosecutor against Corruption and Organised Crime. Their probe focused on the crime-plagued Tropoja region, in Albania’s north.
Since the late 1990s, gangs from Tropoja have become active in the Albanian communities in the East and South East London boroughs of Woolwich, Stratford and Barking.
Mobsters involved in prostitution, cocaine smuggling and cannabis farms are feared to be ramping up their firepower to warn off rivals.
Ervin Karamuco, professor of criminology at Tirana State University, said: “Criminal groups in Albania have established an arsenal of modern weapons and accessories to supply their associates in the UK.
“Weapons are secured in Turkey and the Serbian illegal market and could have been used by anyone — including terrorists.”
The raid followed another last year in which the same crime gang was caught shipping Austrian-made Glock pistols capable of spraying 20 bullets a second.
Six Glocks, a Browning pistol and a Hel-Star handgun were discovered hidden in a table inside a van with UK number plates, along with more than 200 bullets.
Officials in the Albanian port of Durres found the guns — en-route to an address in Luton, according to paperwork — using a scanner.
The van, a white Mercedes registered in Britain, was due to travel by ferry to the Italian port of Ancona, a two-day drive from the UK.
