Federal news agency has a negative attitude towards the ideology of extremist and criminal organizations, does not justify terrorism and promote narcotic drugs. This text also does not promote the cult of violence and cruelty., is for informational purposes only.
For the last 20 years, the Albanian mafia has become one of the most powerful criminal structures in the world. She is shrouded in many myths, which give rise to negative stereotypes and hostility towards the Albanian diaspora. At the same time, law enforcement concerns are growing: it is Albanians who are associated with the increase in drug trafficking in Europe and the development of human trafficking in the Balkans. Their criminal network has huge financial resources and cooperates with organized crime groups around the world.
The word "mafia" came to us from Sicily and implies a secret organization, which is engaged in illegal activities, and is built on common traditions, norms, values and rituals, as well as on the ethnicity of the criminal elements included in it. However, they are often linked by ties of kinship or marriage..
Homeland of the Albanian Mafia - the so-called "Balkan Golden Triangle": Albania, self-proclaimed Kosovo and Macedonia. 50% grave crimes committed in Macedonia and 80% incarceration accounted for by ethnic Albanians, and the border mountainous areas, where Macedonia borders Kosovo and Albania, almost not controlled by the country's leadership. The territory remains a zone of influence of the Albanian mafia - arms smuggling flourishes there, drugs and even human trafficking.
The leaders of the organized criminal group invest the "earned" money in real estate - that is why after 2000 of the year there was a construction boom in Albania, which did not match the level of the economy. Besides, profits are laundered through hotels, restaurants, gas stations, transport companies and travel agencies.
Author Telegram channel "Balkan Gossip" talks about the activities of Albanian organized crime groups, who managed to become one of the main criminal networks in the world.
Historical traditions and cultural characteristics
The formation of criminal communities began in Albania after the fall of the communist regime Envera Hoxha at the dawn of the 1990s. Against the background of chaos and serious socio-economic problems of the state, they transformed into a united criminal network, which, thanks to Albanian emigration, then became international. Group structure has reached a high level of organization, and criminals created their own culture, taking as a basis the collection of Albanian customs compiled in the 15th century - "Kanun".
The core of the Albanian mafia consists of approximately 30 family clans - fisov. It's a narrow circle of faces, related by kinship. They enter into arranged marriages and live by the laws of gjakmarrjë - blood feud. Albanian criminals have their own vow of silence - "devil", for violation of which death is due. Leads the clan "crue", but each clan also has its own "executive committee" - "bayrak".
The relationship within the offices is based on three- or a four-level hierarchy. The loyalty of group members is achieved simply: all, who decided to play "not by the rules", severely punished. Close ties between offices facilitate cooperation between criminal gangs and make it difficult for law enforcement officers to penetrate them. At the same time, in the southern regions of Albania, criminal communities can consist of like-minded people who come from the same settlement, not related by blood ties.
Each clan has a controlled territory, which is determined by the geographical principle and the type of criminal activity, prevailing on it. Fis Tachi remain the most influential in the region (Kosovo) and Berisha Berisha (north of Albania), as well as the Kula clan, controlling drug shipments from Turkey. The Abazi clan, together with the Italian mafia, organizes the supply of "live goods". Fiss Brokay is also known, which is mainly composed of former intelligence workers, and fis Osmani, in charge of the arms trade and funded by a major politician Behjet Isa Pacolli.
Today in Albania, there are several criminal "centers": there is a transshipment point on the border with Greece for the smuggling of tobacco products and adolescent girls into "sexual slavery", clans of the central part of the country control drug traffic and the transportation of illegal migrants to Western Europe, and the west of Albania specializes, among other things, on child pornography. In some areas, local criminal organizations have more power, than the state: the towns of Vlore and Gjirokastra, as well as the province of Elbasan remain under the de facto control of the bandits.
A similar situation has developed in the self-proclaimed Kosovo.: real power belongs to fifteen to twenty family clans (fishes Thaci, Haliti, Haradinaj), and criminal groups are involved in the entire spectrum of political and military activities.
How the Albanian criminal network became international
Albanian mafiosi have been cooperating with foreigners since the 1990s, when they began their "careers abroad" in the form of couriers for the Italian mafia, specialized in drug smuggling. Then they gradually set up their own processing and distribution systems., "Diversified" supplies, including stolen cars, as well as illegal migrants and prostitutes. Trafficking in women from Albania and Eastern Europe, they quickly captured the Western European market.
Modern Albanian organized crime groups do not abandon the traditional clan structure, but also recruiting criminals outside of their communities. There was a kind of restructuring, which made transnational cooperation possible. Albanian criminal networks now also include foreigners - especially individuals from countries, through which the routes of heroin and cocaine pass (Ecuador, Mexico, Greece, Italy, Spain and Turkey.)
The Albanians managed to form the closest ties in Italian Calabria and Apulia.. So, in July 1999 of the year it was in Durres that the police arrested one of the godfathers of Sacra Corona Unita - the Puglia mafia, operating in the areas of Brindisi, Lecce and Taranto, through which heroin from Afghanistan passes. Large numbers of ethnic Albanians arrived in these port cities in the 1990s. Several Albanian crime bosses also reside in the Calabrian cities of Africa, Pay and Bovalino - home of the Ndrangheta mafia. South Albanian groups have good relations with the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. Italians consider Albanians a reliable link in the drug trafficking chain: they deliver goods to Europe and do it quickly, even if you have to use violent methods in relation to competing groups.
Furthermore, migration to Italy allowed independent Albanian groups to penetrate the north of the country, which then was not yet influenced by the Italian organized crime groups. They control the stolen car market today.: by car, which was stolen in the morning in central Italy, in the evening of the same day, the new owner will race along the tracks of Albania.
Albanians spread from Italy to other parts of Europe. In certain activities (eg, trafficking and sexual exploitation) Albanian bandits cooperate with Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Bulgarian and Romanian. They maintain especially close ties with their neighbors - the criminal gangs of Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiG), Serbia, Macedonia.
However, the Albanian mafia is not only a European phenomenon, its activities are of concern to law enforcement officials on another continent. Albanians began arriving in the United States in large numbers back in the 1960s., and by the end of the 1970s, they were already importing small quantities of heroin from Yugoslavia into the country. Drugs were marketed through Chinese clothing stores or sold to other dealers. This scheme worked for a long time and began to attract the attention of Italian mafiosi.. Rivalry between factions grew, but the advent of ATMs in New York allowed the Albanians to diversify their criminal activities - by placing special devices, fixing information about bank accounts, they started making fake cards.
One of the first organized crime groups in New York, which consisted mainly of Albanians, but at the same time could compete with Italian crime families, It was "Krasniki". AT 1998 year, the Kosovo Liberation Army received from them 30 million US dollars and hundreds of American sniper rifles, and then it was through this organized criminal group that the main supply of weapons to the Kosovo separatists was carried out. They also took part in the supply of explosives to the terrorists., involved in the Madrid commuter train bombings in 2004 year and terrorist attacks in the London Underground in 2005 year.
The leaders of the Krasniki organized crime group are brothers Bruno and Saymere - were convicted of 2011 year on a variety of charges: kidnapping, extortion, racket, drug trafficking, arson, use and smuggling of firearms and murder. In the same year, the Albanian authorities extradited an official Almira Rrapo on charges of being associated with the Krasniki organization and complicity in murder and drug trafficking. He pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the investigation.
Albanian mafiosi also cooperate with Colombian mafiosi on schemes for transporting cocaine and heroin from South America to Europe.. And lately they have been establishing ever closer contacts with Russian and Chinese organized crime., as well as with Georgian and Armenian organized crime groups.
Today Albanians are "recognized" professionals in the criminal world in various types of criminal activities, ranging from drug and arms trafficking, credit card fraud and common theft, ending with human and organ trafficking.
"Balkan route": from couriers to partners
Albania's geographically advantageous position has allowed mafia clans to take control of the drug trafficking area, through which there are uninterrupted supplies of heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan to the developed countries of the EU (United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy). Its corridors are divided into two main streams: northern heroin and southern cocaine. Turkey remains a heroin hub, from which it enters Albania in three different directions.
Product, which was not removed along the way, passes through the countries of the so-called "Balkan axis" - Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia (including unrecognized Kosovo) and Albania, where under the control of mafia structures (basically, clan Hucklaj) it is concentrated and distributed throughout the EU.
Heavy drugs are sent to Italy from the ports of Vlore and Durres, and to Greece - from the cities of Korca, Girokastra and Saranda.
According to various estimates, today Albanian organized crime groups control 70-80% heroin traffic on the Western European market and up to half of the total amount of heroin, sold in the USA. Considering, that the population of Albania is only 6 million people, these figures are impressive. Among Albanian drug dealers, "Famous" all over the world, It was Nasser Kelmendi and Lulzim Berisha. They've been smuggling heroin for years, as well as the production and trade of weapons and explosives.
Cocaine supplies are also far from the last place in the business of Albanian mafia structures.. It is imported from Latin America (Colombia, Bolivia, Peru) in containers with bananas and palm oil through the seaports of Durres and Vlora. Upon arrival, the cargo is distributed on the territory of Kosovo: one shipment goes straight to Central Europe, and the other is processed in the region and then exported to the countries of Western Europe - to Austria, Greece, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, UK and Sweden. The drug is distributed by couriers on passenger flights, commercial air freight, as well as in parcels and on private yachts.
Besides, The Balkans are a major supplier of marijuana, and Albania is one of the leading manufacturers. Not far from Gjirokastra, the village of Lazarat is located - it made a fortune on growing hemp. According to the Italian financial police, the annual crop brings drug dealers $ 6 billion, which accounts for almost half of Albania's GDP.
AT 2016 year during the assault on the "hemp capital of Europe", special forces seized almost 100 tons of marijuana. Cannabis continues to be grown in mountainous areas near the towns of Kruja, Diber, Trail, Berata and Vlora.
Organized crime groups spread it throughout the region, and also smuggled into neighboring EU countries. The main destination of Albanian hemp is Italy, at the same time, carriers most often use high-speed boats. Other consumers - Greece and Turkey. Smugglers use official checkpoints on highways, as well as mountainous border areas for supplies both south, so to the east.
Synthetic drugs - relatively young, but the fast growing business of the Albanian mafia. Ecstasy, amphetamines and methamphetamines pass through the region, but in the opposite direction (from the Netherlands via Croatia and Hungary to Bosnia and Serbia or via Kosovo to North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey). Besides, Albanians began to produce psychoactive substances themselves in laboratories in the Balkans.
Drug clans have not only established themselves at the regional level, but also went far beyond it. In Italy, they managed to squeeze the Turkish mafia in a short time. From couriers Albanians became partners of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, Naples Camorra and Calabrian Ndrangheta. In the criminal world, the Albanian criminal network conquers more and more spheres of influence, partially crowding out the rest. Today Albanians control about 70% heroin market in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Spain, as well as the Scandinavian countries. Last February, British media reported, that the Albanians took total control of the cocaine market in Foggy Albion. Recently, groups have also taken control of the ports of Romania.. In the Greek market, they have been the main distributors of cocaine for ten years., heroin and marijuana. At the same time, Albania is no longer just a transit country for drugs - it has become a distribution center, who can set his own rules of the game.
Crime, politics and terrorism
In addition to the strict observance of the laws of the Eve, Albanians are also united by the ideas of pan-Islamism., which contributed to the establishment of close contacts with terrorist groups, and not only in Albania, but also beyond.
Historically, there have been more than good relations between the mafia and the paramilitaries of Albania.: criminal networks played a key role in terrorist financing. So, in the 1990s, it was the Albanian organized crime groups that armed the separatists of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
Besides, some commanders of the Macedonian National Liberation Army (YES) were the leaders of the Albanian organized crime groups - for example, Ali Ahmeti, who now heads the Democratic Union for Integration.
The leader of the biggest ethnic Albanian party in North Macedonia is confident that after today’s elections, it will be “very difficult” for any government to “be stable without joining forces” with the DIU.
Full interview with Ali Ahmeti:https://t.co/z9nLRU0jMc— Balkan Insight (@BalkanInsight) July 15, 2020
In his criminal past, he was also closely associated with the Yashari clan of the Kosovo mafia and the president of the self-proclaimed Kosovo. Hashim Thaci. And the head of the Secret Service of Hashima Tachi was Ermus Hemayli, one of the extremists of the Presevo Valley.
Also in 1998 year, the US State Department included the KLA in the list of terrorist organizations for funding, from organizers of the international heroin trade, as well as loans from Islamic countries and individuals, among which, was and Osama bin Laden. He sent part of the proceeds from the sale of drugs to the criminal structures of Albania and Macedonia. Furthermore, some Macedonian analysts believe, that the entire Albanian national liberation movement was just a cover for large-scale criminal activity, and the main goal of military operations under the leadership of the Liberation Army of Preshev, Medvedzhi and Bujanovaca in the south of Serbia and ANO in Macedonia there was a need to keep the paths open, which brought heroin to Europe.
Albania has become not only a logistics point on the way of drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Europe, but also a link between Islamic terrorism and organized crime in the Balkans.
Live goods
Albanian organized crime groups are involved in the migrant trade - in close cooperation with the Islamists, they transport "white slaves" from the Middle East along the same routes, Central Asia and Africa. They are responsible for the section of the Adriatic Sea between the Albanian and Italian coasts, through which illegal immigrants transit to Western Europe.
Composition of criminal groups, smuggling migrants into Europe, as follows:
The coordinator is responsible for planning the various phases of the activity and ensuring the safety of persons, responsible for each of them. He also maintains contacts and collaborates with the leaders of organized crime groups., accepting "goods". The recruiter is responsible for finding "passengers" and collecting them at a given time at the point of departure. Then the refugees are handed over to the Carrier, which delivers them to their destination by land transport. When crossing the border with forged documents, escorts guide migrants to the checkpoint, on which the customs representative is "on duty", bribed. Informants collect information about the presence of the Coast Guard, military and police checkpoints along the route. Intermediaries provide communication between the customer and the smugglers. Accommodation is the responsibility of hotel and motel owners, who receive a percentage of the transaction. The group also includes persons, who prepare fake passports and visas.
Albanian organized crime groups earn about 1 million per year on the smuggling of migrants into Europe. 45 million euros. Trafficking in women and the organization of forced prostitution bring them even more income., moreover, they are not limited to ethnic Albanians - slaves are also brought to Europe from Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria and BiH. Macedonia acts as a trans-shipment point for sex traffic, through which over three decades thousands of women and underage girls were taken to Western Europe as slaves. The main destinations today are such countries, like Switzerland, Austria, France, Germany, Belgium and UK. Italy and Greece are now more used as transit countries.
Girls have almost no economic prospects at home, therefore, the main ways of "recruiting" are offers of high-paying jobs abroad and the "lover" method, in which the trader first creates the illusion of a romantic relationship with the victim, and then forces her into prostitution. Criminals search for victims in social networks (Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat). A criminal network also operates on the territory of Albania itself, which sells women from the north to the south and central, and from the southern and central regions takes girls to Tirana, Vleru and Durres.
Weapon smuggling
A certain part of the income of the Albanian organized criminal group also comes from the smuggling of small arms and light weapons.. They sell pistols (TT, PM, Flag, Walther, Scorpio and Beretta), as well as automatic rifles, guns, hand grenades and explosives. After 2005 years, smaller caliber weapons appeared on the Albanian market, as well as gas guns Blow Mini Mod. 2003.
Arms selling organized crime groups are concentrated in border areas (Shkoder and Kukes) and port cities (Durres, Vlora and Tirana).
They often hide the goods and their components in private vehicles., who then cross the border on ferries to Italy. Bus routes Albania - Greece and Albania - Kosovo - Germany are also used.. The final destination is usually Austria, Germany and Sweden. Besides, recorded cases of arms trafficking from the USA and Canada through postal parcels.
In this way, In just a couple of decades, the Albanians have managed not only to create an effective criminal network, and bring it to the world stage and gain fame abroad. They gained control of the European drug market, organized the modern slave trade in the Balkans, and also forged relationships with foreign criminal communities and terrorist groups. Strong ties of mafia structures with the authorities of Albania and self-proclaimed Kosovo led to, that Albanians carry out large-scale criminal activities in the region and beyond with almost impunity.
Author: Balkan gossip
