Octopus: The Albanian drug mafia has strengthened ties with the Italian 'Ndrangheta. Albanian mafia

Arrogant, unkempt and aggressive representatives of the Albanian mafia defiantly publish in Instagram photo with expensive cars, gold, weapons and drugs. This is how members of the Hellbanianz gang tease the authorities, boasting of their status.

These pictures have earned them the hatred of millions of people around the world. Why? You will learn about this and how guys make a living from our material.

The members of the Hellbanianz gang are not at all ashamed of their current lives and, even more so, do not intend to change anything.

These “Instagram gangstas” publish dozens of photos with drugs, weapons, expensive cars and girls, which seriously angers respectable Internet users.

Their symbol is two crossed pistols with a double-headed eagle on the handles, which resembles the coat of arms of Albania. The gang is now based in Barking, an area of East London.

There is an opinion that members of the gang, which consists mainly of young guys, have connections with the Albanian mafia and drug cartels in South America.

The lion's share of the Hellbanianz gang's multimillion-dollar profits comes from cocaine trafficking. Now it’s clear how much money was used to buy the expensive jewelry and cars from the pictures in.

Law enforcement agencies report that Albanians, especially those from Kosovo, specialize in drug and weapons trafficking, control prostitution and a number of nightclubs.

Among the members of the Albanian mafia are many children of emigrants who moved to Britain in the 90s in search of better life.

A spokeswoman for the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) told the Daily Express:

“The influence of the Albanian mafia in the UK is constantly growing. They are involved in drug trafficking, including the sale of cocaine. As the gang’s popularity increases, its ranks are regularly replenished with new members.”

Hellbanianz is believed to have close ties to the Balkan mafia. This explains where she gets her drugs from. According to one version law enforcement agencies, the main supply channel is in Eastern Europe.

It is worth noting that it is Hellbanianz who are credited with participating in the stabbing that took place on London Bridge in the summer of 2017.

Then, on June 3, 2017, a white van drove into a crowd of people on London Bridge. When he stopped, three men armed with knives jumped out of the car and began attacking people. Total number More than 40 people were injured in the terrorist attack.

One of the gang members named Tristen Aslanni was recently detained. The man was arrested for drug trafficking and was also in possession of a firearm.

29-year-old Tristen tried to escape from the scene of the accident. When he was detained, 21 kilograms of cocaine were found in the car. During a search of Aslani's home, law enforcement officers found drugs worth approximately $8 million. The court sentenced the man to 25 years in prison.

But overall, the Albanian mafia continues to be the horror of Europe. As for London, besides the Albanians, there are now Turkish, South Asian and Chinese mafia, as well as the Clerkenwell syndicate. The highest concentrations of organized crime groups are observed in the areas of Hankey, Merton, Infield, Brent, Lambeth and Waltham Forest. If one day you decide to travel to London, avoid these places.

To date Albanian mafia ranked first in the world in terms of the scale of criminal activity. Compared to the network of Albanian clans that envelops the whole of Europe, the leaders of Cosa Nostra and the Triad seem like courtyard gopniks.

Appearance

The heyday of the Albanian mafia began during the war in Yugoslavia; at the beginning, their specialization was the power cover of groups of Turkish and Kurdish drug dealers involved in the supply of heroin from Turkey to Europe. Gradually, the Albanian tough guys were no longer satisfied with the role of mercenaries, and they took control of drug trafficking on the so-called “Balkan route”. During the war in Kosovo, part of the funds received from drug sales went to purchase weapons for the UCHK - then the underground Kosovo Liberation Army.

After the war, having received refugee status, hundreds of thousands of Albanians settled throughout Europe and the United States, and former soldiers quickly realized how to use the experience gained in the war.

Organization

The internal organization of the Albanian mafia is, first of all, a narrow circle of people who are part of a family, clan, clan, where an outsider simply cannot get into. These are people bound by the strict, sometimes unjustifiably cruel, laws of blood brotherhood, faith, and the incomparable Albanian way of life and, in the end, unlike any other language. These are families that communicate only with each other, marry their children on the basis of an agreement reached in advance, closely monitor every, without exaggeration, step of their many brothers and sisters and are ready at any moment to put into practice the harsh laws of blood feud in order to take revenge or wash away the shame from your family.

Activity

For recent years Albanian diasporas have increased significantly in Italy, Great Britain, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Poland, the Czech Republic and several more European countries. Having finished fighting in Kosovo, many UCHK militants rushed to Italy and successfully established themselves there. Today, the most powerful criminal group, consisting of ethnic Albanians, operates in Milan. Albanian crime families created a lot of problems for the Italian mafia. It turned out that the old-fashioned mafiosi were not able to withstand the stormy onslaught of former UCH militants. The respectable “godfathers” of the “Cosa Nostra” considered it best not to get involved with thugs, who were used to resolving all disputes with the help of Kalashnikov assault rifles and grenade launchers.

Following the Italian mafiosi, the British ones felt the emergence of a new player on the criminal scene: their usual industries were also passing into the hands of the Albanians. Albanian criminal groups have already “registered” in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and others major cities Kingdoms. According to Scotland Yard, prostitution in England today is 75% under the control of Albanian “brigades”. Criminal communities of Kosovo Albanians have already taken control of 80% of heroin supplies to Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Norway.

In America, the Albanian mafia mainly manifests itself in the supply of drugs from Afghanistan and Turkey through Belgrade. The Balkan Corridor, according to experts, accounts for 25% to 40% of the heroin black market in the United States. The volume of supplies of just one Albanian group suppressed in New York was estimated at $125 million.

There is an opinion, and it has already been allegedly confirmed by facts, that the United States itself sponsors and organizes the delivery of drugs to Europe and receives considerable sums from it. Previously, in Afghanistan they did not process “vegetation” as such; there were small handicraft workshops. Now there are entire processing plants with the best equipment. This is nothing, but the whole point is that these factories are located near military bases, but none of them have been “closed” yet. Recycled" white powder"in the wings of airplanes is delivered to military base USA in the Balkans, there he disperses into clans and then sails across Europe. The Albanian mafia is working on the genetic modification of South American coca, used for the production of cocaine, with the aim of mass cultivation of this plant in Europe and turning the territory of the Kosovo region into a “European Colombia”

The largest Albanian mafia clan is headed by Hashim Thaci, the current Prime Minister of Kosovo. According to secret KFOR reports, this clan owns three illegal heroin processing laboratories. Individuals involved in drug smuggling in Kosovo now occupy the most important government positions in this region. According to some estimates, about 65 percent of the world's heroin passes through this region. And 90 percent of all drugs enter Europe through Kosovo.

Today, the Albanian mafia has taken first place in the world in terms of the scale of criminal activity. Compared to the network of Albanian clans that envelops the whole of Europe, the leaders of Cosa Nostra and the Triad seem like courtyard gopniks.

Appearance

Organization

The internal organization of the Albanian mafia is, first of all, a narrow circle of people who are part of a family, clan, clan, where an outsider simply cannot get into. These are people bound by the strict, sometimes unjustifiably cruel, laws of blood brotherhood, faith, the incomparable Albanian way of life and, in the end, a language unlike any other. These are families that communicate only with each other, marry their children on the basis of an agreement reached in advance, closely monitor every, without exaggeration, step of their many brothers and sisters and are ready at any moment to put into practice the harsh laws of blood feud in order to take revenge or wash away the shame from your family.

Activity

In recent years, Albanian diasporas have increased significantly in Italy, Great Britain, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Poland, the Czech Republic and several other European countries. Having finished fighting in Kosovo, many UCHK fighters rushed to Italy and successfully established themselves there. Today, the most powerful criminal group, consisting of ethnic Albanians, operates in Milan. Albanian crime families created a lot of problems for the Italian mafia. It turned out that the old-fashioned mafiosi were not able to withstand the stormy onslaught of former UCH militants. The respectable “godfathers” of the “Cosa Nostra” considered it best not to get involved with thugs, who were used to resolving all disputes with the help of Kalashnikov assault rifles and grenade launchers.

Following the Italian mafiosi, the British ones felt the emergence of a new player on the criminal scene: their usual industries were also passing into the hands of the Albanians. Albanian criminal groups have already “registered” in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and other large cities of the Kingdom. According to Scotland Yard, prostitution in England today is 75% under the control of Albanian “brigades”. Criminal communities of Kosovo Albanians have already taken control of 80% of heroin supplies to Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Norway.

There is an opinion, and it has already been allegedly confirmed by facts, that the United States itself sponsors and organizes the delivery of drugs to Europe and receives considerable sums from it. Previously, in Afghanistan they did not process “vegetation” as such; there were small handicraft workshops. Now there are entire processing plants with the best equipment. This is nothing, but the whole point is that these factories are located near military bases, but none of them have been “closed” yet. The processed “white powder” in the wings of airplanes is delivered to a US military base in the Balkans, where it is distributed among clans and then floats across Europe. The Albanian mafia is working on the genetic modification of South American coca, used for the production of cocaine, with the aim of mass cultivation of this plant in Europe and turning the territory of the Kosovo region into the “European Colombia”

And the Winner is ...the Albanian Mafia
And the winner is...the Albanian mafia
Frank Cilluffo and George Salmoiraghi
Frank Sailaffo and George Salmoiraghi

The Washington Quarterly

Frank J. Sailaffo is Deputy Director of the international organized crime program at Global Organized Crime. The program is implemented by the Center for Strategic and International Studies at the University of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in which Sailaffo leads seven task forces dealing with international crime and terrorism. George Salmoiraghi is an analyst working on the same program.

Peace agreements signed, troops deployed to Kosovo peacekeeping forces NATO. It's time to crown the winner. Despite the fact that NATO seemed to have achieved its goals in the war - Serbia was forced to agree to the withdrawal of troops, the people of Kosovo returned to their homes, peacekeepers entered the region - the real winner was the Albanian mafia.
Carrying out air operations cost NATO about $5 billion. The main burden of expenses was borne by the United States. Peacekeeping operation will cost at least another $3 billion this year, and in subsequent years the winners will allocate about $50 billion for reconstruction. However, not everyone spends money. Albanian criminal clans profited from the ethnic conflict, grew in size, and increased their influence. They increased their wealth, infiltrated the government and usurped power in the country. And now Albania is on the brink of lawlessness and ungovernability.
Smuggling is the main specialty of the Albanian mafia. And over the past few decades, Albanians have come to dominate the smuggling market in Europe and beyond, leaving behind even their strongest competitors, the Italian mafia. Smugglers are smugglers, and the variety of goods they trade depends on demand: be it drugs, weapons, fuel, stolen goods - or people. As a result of the conflict, a huge flow of people are leaving Kosovo in search of safe areas. This, in turn, caused a real boom in smuggling - the Albanian mafia did not have time to fulfill all orders. During the war, crime families, with the acquiescence of Albanian authorities and corrupt police, smuggled over 10,000 Kosovar refugees a month. The end of the war has not deprived smugglers of this source of profit: fearing retaliation, Serbs are leaving Kosovo. Albanian criminal clans are always for equal rights and opportunities: some of them have already joined the new market and transport their sworn enemies to safe territories - if the price suits them.
Although refugee smuggling is not new business in this region, Kosovo Albanians are a better target for transportation than the everyday "human cargo" of Kurds, Chinese, Albanians and other nationalities migrating across Eastern Europe. In search of a better life, Kosovars paid smugglers up to $900 per adult—significantly more than the usual $400—and $250 per child.
Following their usual practice, Albanians varied rates depending on the destination: for example, refugees traveling to Italy paid the same price for an economy class ticket, to Germany and Switzerland - as for a business class ticket, and to England - the equivalent of a first class ticket . According to Europol, even before the war, human smuggling was more profitable occupation than transporting drugs, and not as risky - in case of arrest, the punishment was less severe. Illegal transportation of people only to countries European Union had an annual turnover of $3-4 billion even before the first NATO bombs were dropped. Now it is the most profitable and fastest growing business in the Balkans.
The authorities of European countries are concerned about the growing scale of illegal immigration and the profits that the Albanian mafia receives from this. Europol has set up a unit to deal with smuggling issues, but it is unclear how it will combat the growing volume of clandestine trafficking of people seeking asylum in various countries. According to the Schengen Agreement, once in one EU country, a traveler can freely enter any other without the need to identify himself at checkpoints and border points. Smugglers and crime families gained unrestricted access to much of Europe by finding the weakest link in the chain - the last border crossing, where controls are less strict - and exploiting it.
Many ethnic Albanians who have sought asylum in European countries are not Kosovars, but illegal Albanian immigrants. Having paid the required amount, the “refugees” received pre-prepared speeches about their terrible ordeals, which they had to deliver at the immigration services. These people took the place of legal refugees who actually suffered all the cruelties of the war. Illegal immigrants have burdened the system with petty requests, claims, and tested the patience of immigration officials. In the UK alone, as a result of the unstable situation in the Balkans, a record influx of immigrants is expected - 45 thousand people. The British government will have to allocate $2 billion a year for this.
From a humanitarian point of view, the "human cargo" transported by the Albanian mafia is the most troubling, but it is not the only source of income for the crime families. In 1997, Interpol stated that "Kosovo Albanians have a huge share of the heroin market in Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Norway and Sweden." The head of Sweden's drug enforcement agency estimates the amount of heroin supplied to the Scandinavian countries at "hundreds, perhaps even thousands of kilograms." When one or two of the main suppliers are detained, there is a lull for just a couple of months, and then other clans come into play. Albanian criminal gangs control about 70% of the heroin market in Germany and Switzerland, and British authorities have noted an increase in the heroin trade in Central Europe.
In recent years, drug trafficking channels through the Balkans have connected with routes starting in Southeast Asia. The main shipping channel, known as the Balkan route, handles 80% of Europe's roughly $400 billion a year in trade.
Opium grown in Afghanistan and Pakistan (the center of the so-called Golden Crescent) is processed in Turkey and then through former Yugoslavia and the Czech Republic are sent to other regions of Europe. Next, the Balkan route leads to Great Britain through the French port of Calais, where the Albanian mafia has a strong position. At Channel ports, Albanians employ middlemen to counter the drug smell by loading their vehicles with meat, animal feed and fresh flowers to confuse sniffer dogs.
The clans make double profits by providing cover for transporting, for example, oil to Macedonia, bypassing the Greek embargo, and using the transport of goods to hide additional cargo of heroin. And people trying to get to Europe are the most suitable carriers of goods.
The Albanian mafia has transnational operations. Albanian clans are scattered in Kosovo and Macedonia as well as in Albania. Moreover, Kosovo clans interact with the Turkish and Bulgarian mafia. Recent arrests also show that the Albanian mafia is using Czech couriers to transport heroin to Turkish and English dealers based in the UK. The smugglers formed alliances with their criminal counterparts in Italy, including Cosa Nostra.
It's no secret that Italian mafia after the recent intensification of the fight against organized crime in Italy, it moved to Vlora, a town on sea coast in Southern Albania. But in many places Albanians are beginning to outlast their competitors. In Turin, according to Italian official sources, Albanians drove out all other foreign criminal groups- from Nigerians to Moroccans - operating in the area.
Albanians and Italians have a symbiotic and simultaneously competitive relations. Albanians receive the opportunity to do business from the mafia, but they are trusted only with unskilled work. Despite this dual existence of the Albanians, the Italians still fear that they will be able to take advantage of the influx of refugees to expand their sphere of influence in southern Italy.
A UK Home Office report said Albanian clans were particularly brutal and "made the Italian mafia look like novices by comparison."
The success of the Albanian mafia clearly illustrates what the lack of state power. About 10% of the population of the city of Vlore is involved - directly or indirectly - in smuggling. Single smugglers can earn $13,000 for one successful overnight flight, while criminal groups receive up to $400,000.
The increase in the number of expensive Italian and German cars in Albania indicates an increase in smuggling, and a recently published investigation by journalist Frank Viviano suggests that two thirds of the cars on the streets of Vlore and Durres are stolen. Smugglers transport their goods through Central and Eastern Europe in Italian cars reported as stolen in order to mislead insurers. After one or two trips, the courier keeps the car as a bonus. Stolen cars are not only used by gangsters, they can be found everywhere. European organization anti-drug agency - Geopolitical Drug Watch - determined the scale of the spread of illegal automobile business, publishing materials about the arrest of the President of the Central Bank of Albania, who, while on vacation, was traveling around Italy in a car that was reported stolen.
The clans continue to thrive thanks to the deteriorating political situation in Albania, which creates an ideal environment for illegal activities. Organized crime tends to flourish under weak governments, a lack of anti-drug laws, poorly equipped police forces, a cash-based economy, and an underdeveloped banking structure. All this is present in Albania.
Communist rule kept the country isolated for 47 years. Albania, mired in violence and corruption, is still trying to shed its communist skin. Having declared democracy in 1991, the country attempted to build market economy. The economy crashed in 1997, accompanied by the collapse of government-backed pyramid schemes, and has yet to recover. Economic crisis caused a wave of riots and looting - against a backdrop of lawlessness that, by all indications, is getting worse. Corruption extends to the very top to such an extent that the country's parliament is nicknamed the “Kalashnikov Parliament” for its complete indifference to the problem of organized crime and close ties to arms dealers.
Weak political system Albania does not give the government the tools to fight the mafia. Parliament, which serves the interests of influential groups, is too slow to pass laws against drug trafficking, which in the current political climate will never work.
The Albanian police are not prepared to fight drug traffickers and are poorly armed and equipped. Its units are staffed with insufficiently qualified people, as are units specializing in combating financial abuse.
The police receive insufficient support from the government; It is very rare that it comes to arrests, much less to trial and sentencing. Corruption is rampant in a country demoralized by low wages, a lack of effective legislation and corrupt authorities. There are frequent cases of bribery of police officers.
The humanitarian aid that came to Albania as a result of the military operations in Kosovo was received in a “power vacuum.” The true needy did not receive it - mostly aid is distributed between those in power and their relatives or sold at exorbitant prices. Meanwhile, the Albanian government has already squandered its annual budget due to the war in Kosovo. The government is broken, and the mafia, on the contrary, is enriching itself and expanding its activities through an extensive network of smuggling connections.
New consequences of the penetration of organized crime into government circles are emerging. As soon as President Clinton and the country" big eight" intend to concentrate their efforts on attempts at restructuring, they should prioritize the creation of the foundations of a stable society in Albania, subject to the rule of law. Washington must rise above dollar diplomacy and Tomahawk missiles - the elixir foreign policy USA for the last six and a half years. Dollars and rockets treated the symptoms, but not the causes, of Albania's political and economic malaise. The US must prove that it can provide the majority of ordinary Albanians with the tools to help themselves. To this end, it is necessary to make accountable and transparent the use and distribution of the country's humanitarian aid and funds allocated for the reconstruction of the country. Such accountability is necessary to prevent abuses and looting such as those that exist in Russia today. The end of hostilities does not mean the end of cooperation. It would be a tragedy for the West, having won Kosovo, to lose Albania to the mafia.

Translated by LOVE Kommersant-GRAKHOVA and IYA Kommersant-MOTSKOBILI

A whole series of large-scale police operations in the late 90s. with the participation of detectives from many European countries, it proved that Interpol did not exaggerate the capabilities of the Albanian drug mafia. The most successful actions, perhaps, include the arrest of one of the most influential Albanian crime bosses - thirty-five-year-old Prince Dobroshi.

HEROIN PRINCE

A high-ranking Albanian gangster was detained on February 23, 1999 in Prague. Thus, the two-year operational development under the code name “Cage” was put to an end. Together with Czech detectives specializing in the fight against drug trafficking, the activities of Dobrosha and his henchmen have been actively studied since 1997 by detectives from Sweden, Denmark and Norway. In total, more than forty gangsters were detained and taken into custody in the Dobroshi clan case (arrests were carried out simultaneously in different countries Western Europe). According to the information available to the police, the Dobroshi clan ensured the supply of heroin on the northern section of the “Balkan route”. Albanian drug dealers obtained large quantities of the drug in the Balkans, and then transported them through the Czech Republic to the Scandinavian countries. Dobroshi controlled 90% of the heroin supplies to Sweden and Norway.

The head of the department for combating drug trafficking of the Czech police, Jiri Komorus, said then that according to the information available to his department, part of the proceeds from the sale of heroin was spent on the purchase of weapons, including portable anti-aircraft guns. missile systems. According to Komorus and his colleagues, the Dobroshi clan can be considered one of the most powerful criminal organizations of Kosovo Albanians operating in Western Europe and specializing in heroin smuggling.

Prince Dobrosi was already officially recognized at the time of his arrest in Prague." bad guy"In 1994, a Norwegian court sentenced him to fourteen years in prison for committing serious crimes. However, the native of Kosovo did not accept this turn in his fate. In January 1997, by bribing a guard, he managed to escape from a Norwegian prison. After escaping, Dobroshi hid for some time in the Balkans. Then, in one of the Croatian clinics, he underwent plastic surgery, after which the Prince returned to his favorite business - the drug business.

Soon after his arrest, he was extradited to Norway, where he was to first serve his previous sentence and then receive a new one.

STUDENTS VS TEACHERS

But, despite the individual successes of the fighters against the drug business, the position of Albanian organized crime in Western European countries continued to strengthen. Often the “bad Albanian guys” (primarily natives of Kosovo) managed to displace even such honored and authoritative colleagues as the classic Italian mafiosi. And at their home - in Italy.

Also in 1999, employees of the specialized anti-mafia department of the Italian police arrested in Milan a certain Agim Gashi, a Kosovo Albanian, in the recent past a resident of the capital of Kosovo, Pristina. He was charged with organizing a criminal community. Gashi and his fellow countrymen, who settled in Italy, smuggled heroin from Turkey to their new homeland for a number of years. Drug deliveries were estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars. Gashi's arrest was also preceded by a large-scale secret police investigation - it lasted about two years.

In addition to Agim Gashi himself, the carabinieri arrested another 124 people. Most of them are ethnic Albanians. But among those arrested were Turks, Italians, Germans, Spaniards and Tunisians. About Gashi, the police said that his sphere of influence included not only sales markets in Italy and some other European countries, but also large ports in Albania, as well as vast poppy fields in Turkey. Gashi was a member of a well-known Albanian family in the Balkans (a family in the literal and figurative sense), which specialized in the supply of heroin along the “Balkan route”, racketeering and forced involvement in prostitution.

In 1992, Agim Gashi came to Italy, married an Italian and quite legally settled in the suburbs of Milan. Traditionally, Milan and its surroundings are considered the patrimony of the 'Ndrangheta - the Calabrian mafia. But this circumstance did not bother the young and active Kosovar at all. Soon he was already at the head of a powerful brigade of Albanians, the core of which was his fellow countrymen, immigrants from Kosovo.

Milan police cite three main traits that characterize Albanian criminal gangs: cohesion, determination to achieve their goals and reckless cruelty. Unlike other immigrants, Albanians did not try to follow local rules. At first they ousted Kurdish and Turkish drug dealers, who until recently played main role in organizing the supply of heroin to Italy through the Balkans. And then they clashed with local mafiosi. Members of the Gashi clan, setting up their business, committed an act unthinkable by Italian standards - they opened fire during negotiations with the son of the famous " godfather"Ndrangheta. However, as a result, the mafiosi still decided that it was better to have Kosovo lawless men as business partners than mortal enemies. Indeed, the majority of ethnic Albanians, immigrants from the provincial Serbian province of Kosovo and the poorest countries in the region (Albania, Macedonia, etc.) there was nothing to lose.

The “business” interests of Agim Gashi and his subordinates were not limited only to Italy. They managed to open their “representative office” in London - a completely legal beauty salon. London was not chosen by chance: the UK has the highest prices for heroin. And under a legal “roof” it was easier to establish the necessary connections. In general, Gashi purposefully invested part of the proceeds from the drug trade in legal business. The first beauty salons and real estate agencies were opened in Milan. Later they were used in drug money laundering schemes. In addition, similar institutions operated in Hungary, Germany and Norway.

The Gashi clan mainly transported wholesale quantities of heroin to Italy from Turkey. Was even created transport company, which was led by two brothers (Kosovo Albanians, of course) Adem and Avni Igrista. Officially, their company specialized in importing nuts and cotton T-shirts from Turkey to Italy. Bags of heroin were cleverly hidden in containers containing innocent goods.

Other schemes were also used. For example, a bulk shipment of heroin was delivered (usually without much difficulty) to Sofia or Budapest. Then the drug was placed in small bags so that it was convenient to hide in a car, and handed over to couriers. Members of the Gashi clan tried to use Germans as couriers. They didn't skimp on commissions. Preference was given to owners expensive cars- Mercedes and BMW.

According to detectives, in Italy alone, Gashi’s subordinates supplied 10-15 kg of heroin daily in this way. To retail the drug on the streets of Milan and other cities, Albanian bosses hired immigrants from North Africa. The Albanians themselves only ensured the continuity of the process. If necessary, we “resolved issues” with competitors. Including with fellow countrymen. A very famous gangster in Albania, Naim Ziberi (his group controlled the drug trade in Tirana), having heard about the fabulous income of his younger colleague, came to Milan and demanded to pay him a share. However, the attempt to impose tribute on the young drug dealer ended disastrously for Ziberi. Soon he was found - all riddled with bullets. The investigation was only able to establish the fact that Ziberi was shot from several machine guns at once.

GUERILLAS OR BANDITS?

On March 25, 1999 - the day after the start of NATO bombing of Yugoslavia - an emergency meeting was convened in The Hague, at Europol headquarters, dedicated to a very pressing problem for many European countries - the sharply increased activity of criminal communities of Kosovo Albanians specializing in smuggling and drug distribution.

Analyzing the vigorous activity of Albanian gangsters, experts in the fight against drug trafficking pointed to the involvement of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army in a well-established heroin smuggling network. As is known, the UCHK (an abbreviation of the Albanian name Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves - Kosovo Liberation Army) was a kind of partisan army of the Kosovars. The security officers, without engaging in large-scale battles with regular Yugoslav units, staged attacks on police departments, convoys, and brutally dealt with the residents of Kosovo (both Serbs and Albanians) who remained loyal to the Belgrade leadership.

At the end of March 1999, one of the Swedish police leaders in charge of the fight against drug trafficking, in an interview with the London Times, said that his service has information that gives grounds to assert that there is a direct connection between drug dollars and the Criminal Code. Apparently, it was no coincidence that the high-ranking Swedish policeman spoke rather vaguely. After all, by that time official Washington and its NATO allies had already placed their bets on the UCHK. From the “very bad guys” (in 1998, by the way, the US State Department officially included UCHK in the list of international terrorist organizations) security officers quickly turned into fighters for the freedom of Kosovo, champions of democracy, selflessly opposing the dictatorship of Milosevic.

However, this was not the first time for the United States to rely on organizations that did not particularly respect the criminal code. So in 1944, the Yankees suddenly became imbued with great sympathy for the “Sicilian anti-fascists”, in other words, for Sicilian mafia. Decades later, there was active support for the Contras in Nicaragua, although the State Department was well aware of the group's involvement in large-scale cocaine trafficking.

If we consider the impact of the armed conflict on the territory of Kosovo and NATO operations on Balkan organized crime, then, perhaps, the Albanian criminal clans were able to find benefit for themselves here too.

In particular, among the refugees - people who really suffered from the war and, by the will of fate, ended up in other countries (including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, etc.) - for some reason there were a lot of strong young people certain type. It's about about Kosovo Albanians - driving around in luxury cars, dressing from the best tailors and quenching their homesickness in the most expensive restaurants. These “refugees” are clearly not limited in their means and, despite the stabilization of the situation, have no intention of returning home. And they are extremely reluctant to answer questions from those who are not knowledgeable about the sources of their income - they refer to rich relatives or say that they have some kind of business...

However, European police already know well which one.