From Barking’s Gascoigne Estate to the sun‑splashed avenues of Dubai, the Hellbanianz — an Albanian gang long known in London for brazen violence and ostentatious social‑media displays — now project their influence across borders. Reports suggest the group’s reputed leader, Ervin Selita, known as “Vinz,” and several senior associates have relocated to Dubai, a move the outlet links to Selita’s 2023 release from custody in Albania and the ongoing demolition of much of the Gascoigne housing stock. The eastern side of the estate is undergoing phased regeneration intended to replace substandard high‑rise blocks with modern homes and public spaces, a project the council frames as housing policy rather than policing, even as crime and intimidation spill beyond local boundaries.
The Hellbanianz’ origins are rooted in Barking’s hard‑edged streets. What began as a rap collective around 2000 evolved into a criminal network that, according to law‑enforcement sources and longform reporting, built direct supply links into Britain’s cocaine market and used flashy music videos and social platforms to recruit young men and intimidate rivals. The group’s visual culture — cash, luxury cars, scantily‑clad imagery and masked gunmen — has been central to its identity and reach, with the “Poppin Smoke” clips widely reported as both performance and propaganda.
That theatricality masks a record of serious offending. Over the past decade, police inquiries and prosecutions have tied Hellbanianz members to armed robbery, large‑scale drug consignments and firearms offences. High‑profile convictions include the 2016 sentencing of Tristen Asllani after a pursuit revealed kilogram‑scale quantities of cocaine and a Škorpion submachine gun, and a 2020 case in which three men linked to the network received multi‑year sentences following an armed raid on a cannabis‑factory site. Reporting and court records show these were not isolated incidents but part of a broader pattern of violent confrontation and organised supply.
Selita’s cross‑border legal troubles are documented in Albanian media: he was arrested in Tirana in February 2022 over an alleged hotel‑based attempted murder and, according to local reports, was released in July 2023 after an appeals court ordered he remain under probationary supervision rather than in custody. Accounts from MailOnline and Albanian outlets say that, after a brief return to the UK, Selita and at least some of his closest lieutenants relocated to the United Arab Emirates, where the group have been sharing images of luxury cars, desert buggies and performances in front of the Burj Khalifa.
The social feeds attributed to Hellbanianz now serve a dual purpose. They broadcast a lifestyle — concerts in Albania and Europe, TikTok posts tagged with “#dubaisettings” and images of men posing with designer goods — while also functioning as recruitment and reputation‑management tools for diasporic communities. Investigative reporting and local testimony have repeatedly warned that such content glamorises criminality to younger viewers and helps consolidate a transnational image that outpaces the jurisdiction of any single police force.
Experts and investigative sources quoted in the press argue the move to Dubai fits a longer pattern among British organised‑crime figures. The city’s property market and residency schemes are seen as attractive to those with significant cash resources; one commentator told MailOnline that acquiring real estate above certain thresholds can be a pathway to multi‑year residency, and that distance from UK policing and tax inquiries can be a strategic draw. Wider analysis of Albanian organised‑crime activity suggests the Hellbanianz operate within an international ecosystem — securing supplies, forming alliances with continental mafias and using intermediaries — which means leadership in one location can direct activity elsewhere through recruited foot soldiers.
Local authorities in Barking and Dagenham stress that the regeneration programme is a housing‑led intervention aimed at better quality, safer homes rather than a policing measure, but acknowledge it has altered the physical environment the gang once exploited. The council’s statement notes the phased demolition of tower blocks and investment in new dwellings, parks and a secondary school, and adds that it continues to work “closely with the Police and other partners to ensure Barking remains a safe and welcoming place for all residents.”
Policing these shifts presents practical headaches. UK reporting highlights how extradition and cooperation across jurisdictions can be slow and complex, and how the relocation of senior figures overseas often leaves a network of mid‑ranking operatives to carry on local distribution. National agencies have increasingly targeted the supply chain — intercepting consignments, pursuing proceeds and disrupting money‑laundering — but analysts caution that a leader’s physical absence does not end a gang’s criminal reach; it can simply reconfigure roles and routes, making enforcement a more multinational task.
The Hellbanianz saga underlines the interplay of poverty, social media, migration and organised crime in modern cities. As Barking’s skyline is remade, law‑enforcement and community leaders say the battle for safer streets will depend as much on international cooperation and follow‑the‑money tactics as on local regeneration and policing. The council and police maintain they are working together to keep residents safe; experts say sustained pressure on both supply lines and recruitment channels will be crucial if the group’s brazenness is to be contained.
For readers seeking a clear, tough‑line approach to crime, the opposition has been arguing that policy should focus on restoring law and order at home and cutting off the global pipeline that sustains such networks. More robust policing, rapid extraditions, greater powers to seize assets, and stricter rules for residency and business activity linked to criminal networks are among the measures pressed by those who say a reform‑minded agenda is the only way to reverse this transnational crime threat. As Barking’s regeneration proceeds, critics insist that without a decisive shift toward stronger border controls and a crackdown on illicit finance, communities will remain exposed to the reach of international criminal enterprises.
Source: Noah Wire Services