It's just gone midday at a north London Wetherspoons and Selamet Mehmetaj sips a Coke as he calmly outlines how his multi-million-pound trade in potent cannabis works.
The drug baron, whose £50,000 Mercedes-Benz without a front number plate is parked nearby, has agreed to meet potential new clients after they contacted him via the anonymous Instagram page that advertises his business.
Unconcerned by other drinkers and passing pedestrians in the bustling Wood Green town centre, the 28-year-old explains how every month he supplies dealers across the UK with 2,500 high strength cannabis plants and harvests buds for them to sell.
Drug baron Selamet Mehmetaj, nicknamed 'The Devil', was selling high strength cannabis plants through his anonymous Instagram page 'Albanian Blood'
And he makes very clear what happens to those who dare to cross him, matter-of-factly boasting how he chopped off two fingers of one client who failed to pay – and got his money before he chopped off a foot.
Meet ‘The Devil’, who is raking in millions from his wholesale drug-dealing business. On his Instagram page titled ‘Albanian Blood’, Mehmetaj has been showing off his cannabis factories and posting videos to highlight what strains are available, encouraging new customers to get in touch.
Instagram removed the page after being contacted by the Daily Mail.
But while the page was still live, undercover Mail journalists posing as customers made contact via the social media app.
Mehmetaj met them near his home in Palmers Green. During the meeting, he:
Bragged that he dodged a firearms charge despite police finding a Russian gun he’d smuggled in from Albania and hidden in his car, saying his solicitor had cooked up a story claiming the gun wasn’t his. Splurged the cash from his illicit business on a bling lifestyle including a £50,000 Mercedes-Benz CLA AMG, an Audi RS7 – which he drives at over 200mph on motorways using fake plates – and a Formula 3 car for off-road racing. Laughed as he described how police missed a stash of cocaine, cannabis and bullets when they raided his five-bedroom flat because they failed to search one room.Mehmetaj, who is from the northern Albanian town of Tropoja, has developed a thriving drugs empire in the UK – and a social media following to promote it.
The Daily Mail undercover reporter exposed Mehmetaj's thriving drugs empire in the UK
Although his Instagram page titled Gjak Shqipez, which means Albanian Blood, was deleted, his other pages, which do not promote cannabis, remain active.
After an undercover reporter messaged the Albanian Blood account inquiring about buying cannabis wholesale, he agreed to meet at a cafe.
Arriving in his blacked-out Mercedes-Benz CLA AMG, he told how his business had boomed during lockdown because everyone was at home.
Mehmetaj explained how every month he grows up to 2,500 cannabis plants – which he calls his ‘babies’ – including high strength ‘stardog’ and the super-potent ‘wedding cake’.
He said he sells each plant for £10-15 in batches of up to 300, and boxes of harvested cannabis by the kilogram.
According to Mehmetaj, the business makes him millions a year, but when sold on by dealers the plants would be worth tens or even hundreds of millions of pounds.
He said ‘many people call me’ for orders, adding: ‘Today they called me and somebody wants 200, somebody wants 300.
'I have people who take every single month from me for their warehouses.’
Mehmetaj sells high-strength cannabis to wholesale dealers across the UK via Instagram
Instagram played a major role in advertising his business, Mehmetaj said, explaining nobody knew he was behind the Albanian Blood page which had almost 1,000 followers.
To drive traffic to it, he posted links and pictures from the account on another Instagram page with 12,000 followers.
This more popular page shows off his cars and cash, mocks the police and links to a rap video he stars in called Gangster Love.
Other rap songs he has produced under the name Memz are available on Spotify and Apple Music.
In his online profile, he is called ‘the Devil’, he said, because ‘that’s what they call me’.
He said: ‘I shared [Albanian Blood links] from my big Instagram and everyone knows me so they saw the page and many people were interested in it and said, “Yeah, we want to buy it”.’
After clients contacted him via Albanian Blood he took their numbers then arranged to meet in person which is ‘safer’ than sending messages online.
