A FORMER Albanian policeman who claimed to be “on a career break” has been caught with members of an organised crime group in Swansea, a court has heard. Igli Ajazi, 26, was arrested after police spotted a car linked to a London-based Albanian crime gang on a street in the Sandfields area.
Officers from the organised crime team in Swansea identified the vehicle, a Vauxhall Insignia, on Beach Street on 14 April. The car, flagged on the police national computer for its connection to the gang, was initially unoccupied. However, a short time later, Ajazi and two other Albanian men returned to the vehicle. Police immediately moved in and arrested the trio.
Prosecutor Caitlin Brazel told Swansea Crown Court that Ajazi, of Orford Road, Walthamstow, London, informed officers during his arrest that he was an Albanian policeman “on a career break”. When asked to provide the PIN for his mobile phone, he refused. However, officers gained access to the device using facial recognition and discovered incriminating evidence, including messages, photos, and videos related to a large-scale cannabis cultivation operation in London.
The court heard that Ajazi had been in communication with gang members regarding a cannabis plantation in Ilford. Messages revealed he had been instructed to inspect the site and document the aftermath of a break-in. Additional material on the phone included six videos depicting child sexual abuse involving children as young as one, and 24 videos of extreme pornography involving acts with donkeys, dogs, and a turtle. In his police interview, Ajazi maintained that he was an Albanian officer and claimed the content on his phone was connected to his job.
Ajazi pleaded guilty to charges of being concerned in the production of cannabis, possession of indecent images (categories A and C), and possession of extreme pornography. Defence counsel Nicholas Ferrari stated that Ajazi had served as a police officer in Albania from 2019 to 2022 and was in the UK on a student visa, studying criminology and policing at Roehampton University. He had no prior convictions.
Sentencing, Judge Huw Rees said that Ajazi had represented himself as a police officer upon arrest and remarked: “Somebody like you should have known better in desisting from criminality when you are in someone else’s country.” The judge acknowledged that Ajazi had experienced a “taste of prison” while being held on remand and noted the “limited nature” of his offences. Consequently, he imposed a suspended sentence.
Ajazi was sentenced to 20 months in prison—comprising 10 months for the cannabis offences and 10 months for the indecent images and extreme pornography—suspended for two years. He was also ordered to complete a rehabilitation course, an accredited programme, and 180 hours of unpaid community work.
