A former Albanian policeman was caught with members of an organised crime group in Swansea, a court has heard. Igli Ajazi was arrested when officers swooped on a car which intelligence indicated was linked to a London-based Albanian crime gang.
Swansea Crown Court heard Ajazi told the arresting officers he was an Albanian policeman “on a career break”. The defendant refused to reveal the PIN for his phone but when police accessed it using the device’s facial recognition facility they found messages and videos relating to a large-scale cannabis growing operation in London, as well as videos of child sex abuse and bestiality.
Caitlin Brazel, prosecuting, told the court that on April 14 this year officers from the organised crime team in Swansea saw a Vauxhall Insignia car which was flagged on the police national computer as being linked to a London-based Albanian organised crime group parked on Beach Street in Sandfields. She said the car was unoccupied but the officers kept watch on the vehicle and a short time later three Albanian men – including Ajazi – returned to it. The officers moved in and arrested the trio and Ajazi told them he was an Albanian policeman in the UK “on a career break”. For the latest court reports, sign up to our crime newsletter here
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On Ajazi’s phone officers found messages, photos, and videos relating to a “large-scale cannabis grow” in the Ilford area of London. The court heard that in some of the messages the gang running the drugs operation had instructed Ajazi to go to the plantation to check what damage had been done following a break-in at the site and to send them photographs of the scene. Also on the phone were six videos showing child sex abuse involving children as young as one, and 24 videos showing men and women having sex with donkeys, dogs, and a turtle. In his interview the 26-year-old defendant again said he was an Albanian police officer and said the images on the phone were connected to his job. For the latest court reports, sign up to our crime newsletter here.
Igli Ajazi, of Orford Road, Walthamstow, London, had previously pleaded guilty to being concerned in the production of cannabis, possession of indecent images of categories A and C, and possession of extreme pornography when he returned to the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions. Nicholas Ferrari, for Ajazi, said the defendant had been a police officer in Albania between 2019 and 2022 and was currently in the UK on a student visa and was studying criminology and policing at Roehampton University.
Judge Huw Rees said on arrest the defendant had presented himself as a police officer and told Ajazi “somebody like you should have known better in desisting from criminality when you are in someone else’s country”. The judge said being held on remand had given the defendant a taste of prison and said given the “limited nature” of Ajazi’s offending he was able to suspended the sentence that was due. The defendant was sentenced to 20 months in prison – comprising 10 months for cannabis offending and 10 months for the images offending to run consecutively – suspended for two years. He was also ordered to complete a rehabilitation course, an accredited programme, and 180 hours of unpaid work in the community.
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