A Yorkshire police force has become the first in the UK to team up with cops in Albania to investigate gangsters from the Balkan state operating in the UK.

South Yorkshire Police joined forces with Albania’s Special Anti-Corruption Structure (SPAK) to tackle serious organised crime.

The partnership saw two gang members jailed for chaining two men to radiators as part of a plan to blackmail their families for ransom money earlier this month.

Andi Alushi, 27, from Albania, and Valdemaras Kasinskas, 39, from Lithuania, falsely imprisoned the men at a house in Sheffield in May 2022.

The victims, who were believed to have been trafficked to the UK from Albania, were filmed eating from dog bowls during their 10-day ordeal.

Video evidence from the house also showed the victims being made to dance while a machete-wielding man looked on.

Alushi and Kasinskas plotted to obtain a "substantial ransom" from their family back home, prosecutors said.

South Yorkshire Police said the pair blamed their victims for one of their cannabis warehouses being dismantled.

Detectives said the collaboration with Albania’s Special Anti-Corruption Structure (SPAK) allowed their cops to travel to the country to follow up lines of inquiry.

Officers from the UK were able to speak with the victims’ families and understand the impact that Kasinskas and Alushi’s crimes had had on their lives.

Detective chief inspector Mark Oughton said: “Initial enquiries revealed that the victims had been held and abused in a bid to extort money from their families, who were still in Albania.

“It was evident that we were looking at serious organised cross-border criminality.

"We approached The Hague for authorisation to carry out enquiries in Europe and to ask Lithuanian and Albanian law enforcement for their help.

“This was a true partnership effort and it has been a privilege to work so closely with the Albanian Embassy, SPAK, FLEC and Eurojust.”

Alushi and Kasinskas pleaded guilty before their trial to two counts of false imprisonment.

It comes after figures showed Albanians are now the biggest single nationality arriving in the UK by crossing the Channel, with more than 12,000 making the journey last year.

And NCA chiefs said crime gangs are smuggling hundreds of millions of pounds a year out of the UK and using Channel crossings to staff cannabis farms.

Last month, PM Rishi Sunak announced the UK and Albanian governments would work together to share information to reduce illegal migration and fight human trafficking.