Albanian mafia

The Albanian Mafia (AM) or Albanian Organized Crime (AOC) are the general terms used for various criminal organizations based in Albania or composed of ethnic Albanians. Albanian criminals are significantly active in the United States and the European Union (EU) countries, participating in a diverse range of criminal enterprises from narcotics and gunrunning. Although the term "mafia" is often used as a description, it does not imply that all Albanian criminal activities are coordinated or regulated by an overarching governing body headquartered in Albania proper, Kosovo or elsewhere.

History

Albanian organized crime has its roots in traditional family-based clans. From roughly the 15th century under the prince Lekë Dukagjini, the clans operated under a set of laws known as kanun, literally meaning code in Albanian. It heavily valued loyalty to one's clan and secrecy, or besa. Each clan ruled over and controlled a certain area, and occasionally this gave rise to violence, and blood feuds known as Gjakmarrja. It is these principles of kanun that gave rise to Albanian organized crime today, and make it more difficult for Albanian gangs to be infiltrated by law enforcement.

There had always been black market activities under the communist regime. After the collapse of communism in the late 1980s, Albania's newfound connections to the rest of the world led to the expansion of its organized crime groups to an international level.

The Kosovo War played a key role in the rise of the Albanian mafia throughout Europe. Traditionally, heroin had been transported to Western Europe from Turkey via Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. This route had closed as a result of the war and Albanian gangs found themselves in an ideal position to guarantee safe routes through the war zone, at first only assisting other criminal groups but eventually growing powerful enough to take over on their own. A key base of operations was Veliki Trnovac in southern Serbia, which quickly gave it the nickname the "Medellín of the Balkans". Once the war had reached Kosovo proper, ethnic Albanians were added to the list of nationals qualifying for 'refugee' status. Since it was impossible to tell Kosovo Albanians from the rest, gangsters took advantage of the situation and spread quickly throughout Europe, first going to Albanian communities in Germany and Switzerland and taking over the heroin trade there.

Albanian-American criminals are said by police involved in everything from gun-running to counterfeiting. But it is drug trafficking that has gained Albanian organized crime the most notoriety. Some Albanians, according to federal Drug Enforcement Agency officials, are key traders in the "Balkan connection," the Istanbul-to-Belgrade heroin route. DEA officials estimated that, while less well known than the so-called Sicilian and French connections, the Balkan route might have been moving, around 1985, 25% to 40% of the U.S. heroin supply.

Relationship with the KLA

The nature of the relationship between the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and Albanian organized crime has been a controversial subject. During the 1990s the KLA was viewed by many, including top US government personnel, as a freedom fighting organization struggling for the rights of ethnic Albanians, while others claimed that the KLA was a terrorist group financed and guided by the United States. For example, Senator Joe Lieberman said regarding the KLA: "The United States and the Kosovo Liberation Army stand for the same values and principles...fighting for the KLA is fighting for human rights and American values.". In 1999 the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee accentuated widespread allegations of the KLA's criminal connections, claiming that a "major portion of the KLA finances are derived from [criminal] networks, mainly proceeds from drug trafficking" the report goes on to say that former president Bill Clinton's befriending of the group is "consistent Clinton policy of cultivating relationships with groups known for terrorist violence... in what may be a strategy of attempting to wean away a group from its penchant for violence by adopting its cause as an element of U.S. policy."

According to a Interpol testimony on 2000, there might still be links between political/military Kosovar Albanian groups (especially the KLA) and Albanian organized crime. Legitimate fundraising activities for the Kosovo and the KLA could have been be used to launder drug money, the KLA was described as a key player in the drugs for arms business in 1998, "helping to transport 2 billion USD worth of drugs annually into Western Europe", and the possibility of an Albanian/Kosovar drugs for arms connection is confirmed by at least two affairs in 1999.

Myth or reality?

Critics feel that an image of the "Albanian Mafia" and the KLA as terrorists has been unfairly created by the Serbian government and media, in order to "demonize" Albanians internationally and to influence Kosovo's independence process, and that it has no basis in reality.

Allegedly, the vast majority of articles talking about Albanian Organized Crime and their alleged connections to terrorists, originally stem from sites such as serbianna.com, kosovo.net (which is titled "Kosovo - Serbian Orthodox Church), byzantinesacredart.com, (titled Orthodox Journal), srpska-mreza.com and others, which are known to be very biased and dubious.

There have even been instances of Serbian websites publishing reports about the "Albanian Mafia", supposedly based on "Interpol" information and other "official" sources, which in reality have never existed.

In other cases random and individual crimes, some of them dating back as much as 25 years, have been compiled into single articles in order to form an image of the Albanians as criminals, whereas the level of crime among Albanians is no higher than among other ethnic groups in the Balkans.

In the latest report of the United Nations it is even said that the "Balkans are safer than western Europe" and that "At present, the levels of crime against people and property are lower than elsewhere in Europe"

Activity in Italy

Steering clear of the south, where the Italian mafia is firmly in command, the Albanians are targeting affluent central and northern areas like Lombardy, Piedmont and Tuscany. Along with the Russian mafia, Nigerian gangsters and the Chinese triads, are redrawing Italy's criminal map. However instead of choosing to fight over control with Italian criminal organizations, Albanian mobsters have opted to cooperate in mutual interests instead.

But Dr Di Pietro, Unit Chief of the Direzione Nazionale Antimafia (DNA), stresses that the expansion of gangs from across the Adriatic does not mean the Italian mafia has surrendered ground. "No Albanian group would ever be capable of taking on the Camorra or Cosa Nostra" he says. "The fact that there have been no turf wars between Italian and Albanian mafia is significant. They have evidently made a pact."

One of Italy's top prosecutors, Cataldo Motta, who has identified Albania's most dangerous mobsters, says they are a threat to Western society.

"Albanian organised crime has become a point of reference for all criminal activity today. Everything passes via the Albanians. The road for drugs and arms and people, meaning illegal immigrants destined for Europe, is in Albanian hands."

Activity in the United Kingdom

Albanian mafia gangs are believed to be largely behind sex trafficking in the United Kingdom and are believed to have a foothold in the King's Cross area of London, as well as competing with Turkish gangs over the heroin trade.

Activity in the United States

In the United States, Albanian gangs started to be active in the mid-80s, mostly participating in low-level crimes such as burglaries and robberies. Later, they would become affiliated with Cosa Nostra crime families before eventually growing strong enough to operate their own organizations. Albanian organized crime has created new and unique problems for some law-enforcement officers around the country.

Activity in Belgium

In its latest March 19 issue, Brussels weekly TeleMoustique offers an exclusive dossier about the mafia in Belgium where, according to the Belgian police department specialized for Albanian organized crime, Albanian mafia clans dominate, leading in the illegal trade, including human trafficking and the sale of cocaine and heroin.

The Albanian gangs are spread throughout the Europe, the report says, adding that Albanian brutality and networks of prostitution rings have made them notorious and dominant in the human trafficking in the West.

Belgium is regarded as the most important country in the Albanian human trafficking, being the last port before the entry to Great Britain, considered the "El Dorado of the illegal immigration".

It is estimated that up to 100,000 illegal immigrants have been transferred to Belgium by the Albanians, while some observers warn that this number represents the illegal immigrants in Brussels alone, the city with some 1M residents, the report claims.

Belgian police has found the Albanian mafia is most often sending this money by other expats to Albania and Kosovo, to be "invested" in the building of houses and gas pumps.

They along with the Italian OC groups are working together and have become a force with alongside them in Belgium's underworld.

Specific Albanian mobsters

• Princ Dobroshi
• Ismail Lika
• Alex Rudaj
• Victor Hoxha

See also

• Sex trafficking
• Mafia