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 to narcotics and gunrunning. Despite media reports that often have the effect of suggesting an emerging global Albanian mafia "movement" or network, this interpretation has not been substantiated. Reports of "Albanian Mafia" and Albanian criminal activity are used by some to take shots at Albania, wheareas others claim that crime and criminals exist in every country.

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.

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.

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."

Activity in the United States

Of particular concern to law enforcement personnel, however, has been the level of organized Albanian activity within the U.S. By the early to mid-1980s, Albanians in area cities and suburbs outside Detroit and New York were already involved in crimes ranging from robbery to extortion. Indeed, by 1985, Albanians were already gaining notoriety for their drug trafficking. This activity became predominant among the so-called Balkan Route which begins in Central Asia, through Istanbul to Belgrade and, with Sicilian and French connections, makes its way to the US. American Drug Enforcement Administration officials estimated that between 25 percent of the US heroin supply by 1985 was taking this route, with Albanian assistance.

Ten years later, more organized, disciplined and out on their own, Albanian crime gangs have increased the scope of both their activities and geographic locations within the United States. By January 1995, authorities estimated that approximately 10 million U.S. dollars in cash and merchandise had been stolen from some 300 supermarkets, ATM machines, jewellery stores and restaurants. By the early 1990s, groups based in the New York area, particularly the Bronx, were committing robberies with such frequency and success that local law enforcement officials realized federal assistance would be required. The FBI, however, was equally at a loss as to the nature, extent, and structure of these groups. After examination of several criminal incidents, some conclusions were made. First, it appeared that many of the thefts which occurred were carried out, in an attempt to fund either the war effort in the former Yugoslavia, or to assist fellow Albanians in Macedonia and Kosovo. Concern among those area authorities, as previously stated, was that this source of funding was aiding those more right- wing elements that are stockpiling weapons awaiting the right time for future insurrection. Second, it appeared that the Albanians operating within the US had a series of crews separated into premier and second-class units depending upon the difficulty of the job.

The FBI's prosecution of traditional Italian-American Mob Families in the 1990s weakened the Lucchese Family so greatly that the Rudaj Organization, of the Albanian Mob, were able to take over the Italian organization’s gambling operations in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens. And when the Lucchese Family was run out of the district, the Gambinos, another Italian-American Mafia Family, attempted to take their place before the Albanians could take full control of Astoria's gambling rackets. The Rudaj Organization is the name given to the so-called Albanian mafia in the New York City area in a 44-page indictment unsealed on October 26, 2004. The FBI and Manhattan U.S. Attorney David Kelley announced the arrest of the group's alleged boss, Alex Rudaj, and twenty-six other reputed gang members indicted in connection with racketeering, attempted murder, robbery, extortion, gambling and loan-sharking. Kelley's office said it believes the indictment is the first federal racketeering case in the United States against an alleged organized crime enterprise run by Albanians. Alex Rudaj and five of his gang members were later convicted of racketeering on January 4, 2006

The Rudaj organization, which also called itself "The Corporation," had a few dozen members at most. The group was estimated to control about 50 video poker machines in the Queens, the Bronx, and Westchester and later branched out into extortion, debt collection, and loansharking.

To date, over 20 members of the Rudaj organization have been charged with various crimes. 6 of it's top leaders, including Alex Rudaj himself, have been convicted. 10 more have pled guilty. According to the FBI, following the massive bust, the Rudaj organization is now largely out of business and most of it's leaders are behind bars. .

OVERVIEW

Albanian Organized Crime controls 55% of the world's heroin trade and 47% of arm smuggling. Albanian mafia is based on family groups. The division among clans or family groups in Albania was originally a social division, not a criminal one. Today, every activity in Albania still works in that way. To understand the international heroin trade it is essential to understand Albanian organized crime. This is because it is the Albanians who are the link between Afghan and Pakistani heroin growers, Turkish producers and the world market. The Albanians are among the world's most well connected criminals. In order for them to ply their trade they deal with the Italian 'Ndrangheta, Camorra, Stidda and Mafia, as well as the Russian Solsentskya mob, Polish organized crime (who are among Europe's main methamphetimine producers) and Nigerian, Colombian, Mexican, Serbian, British, Irish, Dutch, and Kurdish criminal syndicates. In fact they work with every group around the world. Their most troubling links perhaps are with terrorist groups from Serbia to Afghanistan. Structural links between politically connected terrorist groups and criminal gangs involved in drug trafficking, armed robbery, extortion and illicit smuggling of humans became a major problem for the world's nations during the 1990's as state's became more reluctant to fund terrorist groups. Terrorists and organized criminals became hinged at the waist as both saw that they could make money together. The Albanians perhaps more so than many other groups have become dependent on their relationship with terror groups and the government of terror connected groups. The Taliban after all was in control of most of the world's heroin supply: the Afghan Northern Alliance has now taken over this role and thus the Albanian connections. Albanian organized crime groups are hybrid organizations. These groups are involved in both crime and politics. Unlike many organized crime groups many of the Albanian organizations do have a political ideology, which governs their actions. In 1986 the break up of the "Pizza connection" made it possible for other ethnic crime groups to occupy the terrain of the Italian and Italian American crime families. This was especially easy for the Albanian groups because they had worked extremely closely with the Sicilian Mafia and their American counterparts since at least the early 1970's. In september 1985, the Federal officials estimate that Albanian groups had imported more than 110 pounds of heroin with a retall or "street" value of $125 million through the Balkan connection before the ring was broken up. Federal agents believe the drugs had been sold in New York, California, Texas and Illinois. In september of 1985, for 45 minutes Mr.Rodolph Giuliani (former U.S. Attorney and mayor) and his chief assistant, William Tendy, listened to and evaluated the tale. Five other informants later corroborated it. The threatened lawmen-assistant prosecutor Alan M. Cohen and narcotics agent Jack Delmore-were given 24-hour-a-day protection by federal marshals. Number of his colleagues share that perception. Mr. Giuliani says that he himself has been threatened. The drug case that brought forth the threats Mr. Giuliani is concerned about involved the disruption of the so-called "Balkan connection" heroin trade conducted by among others a loosely organised group of ethnic Albanians, centered in New York. A federal probe into this drug traffic and other possible crimes, including the alleged plot to kill officials, is in progress. The drug investigation and the criminal activities of a group of Albanian-Americans have attracted "LITTLE PUBLICITY". This is the exact condition, which faciliated the transformation of the mafia in Italy during the 19th century. “What’s the difference between the Italian mafia and the Albanian mafia?” the magistrate in a southern Italian port paused for a moment to find the comparison he was looking for. “When our mafia wants to intimidate you it shoots you in the knees. But when the Albanians want to frighten you, they kill you.” Then Italy’s growing problem with the criminal underbelly of the influx of refugees crossing the Adriatic seemed just a by-product of geography. Italy is only 40 miles from Albania so it was caught up in the backwash of Balkan problems. Maybe Albanian gangs were conquering the Italian underworld, but surely organised crime was really a traditional Italian vice and not the sort thing to hit Britain? Already 70% of prostitution in Central London is controlled by Albanian gangs. The problem of the Albanian mafia in Britain will be raised in Edinburgh, when some of the world's foremost experts on organised crime will meet to discuss emerging trends at the Global Forum for Law Enforcement and National Security. One of Italy's top anti-Mafia magistrates says Albanian gangsters are taking control of organised crime on both sides of the Adriatic. 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," he says. "Everything passes via the Albanians. The road for drugs and arms and people, meaning illegal immigrants destined for Europe, is in Albanian hands." When the prosecutor leaves his office, three police bodyguards are at his side because of the risk of assassination by Albanian gangsters. Albanian gangs quickly branched out from ferrying their countrymen across the Adriatic. They became one of the main conduits for illegal immigrants trying to slip into Europe. Today, even Chinese immigrants travel through Albania after being flown to Moscow and bused to Vllore. Ten years ago, few people knew anything about Albania. Today, its gangsters have become so notorious for violence they give even Italian mobsters pause. In the north of Italy, the Albanians have taken the prostitution racket away from the country's toughest Mafia branch, 'Ndrangheta. In the south, they control the drugs, guns, prostitution and human smuggling across the Adriatic and have forced an alliance with the local Mafia group. Even priests who work with women sold into sexual slavery must travel with bodyguards for fear the Albanian kidnappers will take revenge. Now Italian investigators suspect a flood of cocaine into the country may be the result of Albanian criminals working in the United States, a connection being probed by Italian police and the Federal Bureau of Investigations. "The Albanian mafia is especially violent," said Cataldo Motta, a Mafia prosecutor in the province of Puglia in southern Italy. "We know how to fight against the Mafia, but now we have a new one -- and it is a foreign culture we don't understand." Ironically, this is also the view of Italians on the other side of the law. "I hate Albanians. Their criminals have become rich and we've become poor. They have a lot of money because they work with girls and drugs," a cigarette smuggler told the National Post. "We have only one document from the DIA [Italy's anti-Mafia agency] about the Albanian mafia," said Michele Emiliano, the Mafia prosecutor who first uncovered and prosecuted the Sacra Corona Unita. "Both the Mafia and Albanians are violent but at least the Mafia has some rules. The Albanians don't care about life at all, they'll kill you without reason." The Albanian mob also has the advantage of being able to blackmail fellow Albanian migrants around the world. "The Albanian mafia has a huge capacity to expand itself. Many times decent Albanians are obliged to help the Albanian mafia," Mr. Emiliano said. "If there are no other Albanian criminals in the country, they ask for help from law-abiding Albanians and put pressure on their relatives at home, who have little or no police protection. " The Albanian mafia grew out of the country's decade-long collapse. Though they started as groups of low-level hoods and smugglers, they have developed into sophisticated -- and little understood --organizations that have profited from globalization, like their counterparts in Eastern Europe and South America, with whom they are closely connected. In the mid 1990s, the Albanian mafia even brought over cocaine- growing experts from Colombia to help introduce the crop to Albania, which already produces heroin and marijuana. In 2001, Frederik Durda, an Albanian cartel who recently failed in an attempt to deliver 8 tons of liquid cocaine from Colombia to Albania. Investigators already have pictures of Durda riding in private helicopters, and near mansions and pure-bred horses in Colombia. On the other hand, starting June 19, 1999, four Colombians successively paid visits to Albania. According to evidence procured by the investigators, Durda established contact with the heads of one of the strongest cocaine clans in Colombia. He promised he would manage the tons of narcotics arriving from Columbia in Venezuela, and then in Spain. Albanian drug lords spread out throughout Europe and with them came their networks. The end of the conflict in Kosovo sparked the emergence of the Albanian crime lords as one of the major players in the international drug trade. The United States had also inadvertently created these organizations as they allied themselves with KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army). The former freedom fighters emerged in the mid 90's as nothing more than Europe's most powerfull drug cartel. Albanian Mafia was known to start with 15 families (today 34). These families had essentially been smuggling contraband for hundred of years. When Albania was in a state of anarchy, the 15 families became the local powers. Each of these 15 families is clan based and maintains their own private armies. These armies evolved to form the KLA, which is a direct offshoot or organized crime enforcement operations. Similar to Colombia's AUC or the Los Pepes organization, which was a paramilitary wing of the Cali Cartel. The 15 families grew wealthy. They were doing $2 billion dollars a year in heroin by 2000 and now it is estimated $170 billion including all criminal activities by Albanian organized crime. The 15 families grew to become so powerfull that today fully 90% of Europe's heroin travels through Albania. Many European heroin addicts refer to the product as the "Albanian lady" or "Albanka". What the Mexican drug cartels are for the North American cocaine trade, the Albanian cartels are for the European trade. They are the UPS of the drug underworld. Both the Mafia and the Russian Mayfia relied on the Albanians for their supply on heroin. With their newfound funds the Albanians began to purchase banks. Albanian smugglers accumulated a massive influx of cash from the sale of weapons, drugs, people and tabacco products. They quickly discovered they needed to launder their money. With Kosovo and Albania in state of anarchy these groups had little trouble becoming involved in the banking system. This made them the brokers of the underworld. They could now launder the ill-gotten gains of their Russian and Italian business partners, for a price. This obviously proved to be extremely lucrative for these organizations. Albania today is in the merge of a "building boom". Every 20 story building or luxcurious investment in Albania today is believed to be somehow connected with laundering money from Albanian organized crime groups in Diaspora. In fact so much that former prime minister of Albania Fatos Nano was cought in a contrabant scandal with Italian 'ndrangheta including prime minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi. Fatos Nano, the former leader of the Albanian Socialist Party and a former prime minister, escaped from the prison where he had been held since 1993. The Socialist Party, which had promised to reimburse savers who had been swindled, won 101 seats out of 165. Rexhep Mejdani succeeded Mr Berisha as president and Mr Nano again became prime minister which was overpowered in 2005 by the former president Sali Berisha, Albania's today prime minister, a person whom Mr.Nano bloodly battled for almost 20 years feuding to lead the biggest democratic politican leader assasinated(Azem Hajdari). After his assassination, for which Berisha blamed the Socialist Party of Albania and its leaders (Nano points out to as of Berisha had made the plot), there were several demonstrations, some of them violent. No one was convicted of Hajdari's murder, although many people were eventually fingered as having participated in his assassination. Many of these suspects were in turn assassinated or killed under different circumstances. In 1997 the government has singularly failed to tackle the problems of law and order, corruption, economic recovery and democracy. Sixteen people were shot dead in the five days from 10 to 14 April, and another 22 wounded in gun attacks. Armed robbers are stripping the country bare. Nehat Koula, a gangleader charged with killing a policeman, was acquitted on grounds of "self-defence". He had been Mr Nano’s protector in prison. Zani, the mafia chief who provided bodyguards for the Italian prime minister during his visit to the city of Vlora, has been in prison for nine months, but his mother is received officially by senior members of the government. Organised crime and the government are locked in a struggle for control of southern Albania, where the interests of local SP leaders and those of the gangleaders are closely intertwined. Year 2007. One of the most powerfull boss of the original 15 families, Daut Kadriovski, Europe's most powerfull cartel remains at large and it is believed to work through several bussinesses in the New York City and Philadelphia areas. In 1985 he escaped from a prison in Germany and yet remains a fugative. Recently law enforcement broke an Albanian organization in New York City and believed to be one of the 6th families there. Rudaj Crime Family extorted money from other Italian-American mafia families. Federal prosecutors issued racketeering charges against 22 people associated with an immigrant Albanian crime family called the Rudaj Organization. Alex Rudaj is the alleged boss of the Albanian mafia's Rudaj Organization, based in the New York City metro area. Alex Rudaj, and 21 other reputed gang members charged in the indictment. Kelley's office said it believes the indictment is the first federal racketeering case in the United States against an alleged organized crime enterprise run by Albanians. It should be noted that several of the defendants indicted in the case are not Albanian - the organization has soldiers that are Greek, Arab and Italian - but most of the defendants in the case were either native Albanians or first-generation Albanian-Americans. During a bail hearing for one of the two dozen people arrested in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Treanor said that the Albanian mob had taken over the operations of the Lucchese family in Astoria, Queens. Rudaj lead an attack in August 2001 on two members of the Lucchese crime family who ran a gambling racket inside a Greek social club. Prosecutors said that Rudaj and his friend Colotti broke off from the Gambinos after Phil Loscalzo died in the early 1990s. Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Gruenstein said their goal was "to become one day, they hoped, a sixth family." The NY Daily News said: federal prosecutors are claiming the Gambinos and the Lucheses - among the most bloodthirsty crime families the city has ever known - are just a bunch of pansies... "The Gambino crime family simply could not stand in the way of the Rudaj organization, and the Rudaj organization took great pride in that," prosecutor Benjamin Gruenstein said. They also pushed the Lucchese crime family out of Astoria, Queens, prosecutors said, taking over gambling clubs the Luccheses had run for years. "What we have here might be considered a sixth crime family," after the five Mafia organizations — Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese — said Fred Snelling, head of the FBI's criminal division in New York. According to evidence at trial, armed members of the Rudaj Organization met with members of the Gambino crime family, led by Arnold Squitieri, at a gas station in New Jersey for a standoff, and Dedaj pointed a gun at the gas pumps and threatened to blow everyone up. FBI has recently announced that ethnic Albanian gangs are replacing the Italian La Cosa Nostra mafia. During the 1970s Albanian expatriates in the US were actively recruited as couriers, transporters or assassins for the Italian Mafia. The efficiency and brutality with which these members conducted these criminal affairs got them to advance within the Mafia network, so much so, that by 1996 the main assassins for the Gambino crime family were ethnic Albanians. Gambino's Sammy Bull Brovano's go-to "clipper", for example, was an ethnic Albanian, Zef Mustafa, whose notoriety for murder and racket was exceeded only by his love of alcohol: drunk from dawn, in a 1996-02 span this Albanian organized a $19 million internet heist, was let out on a $5 million bond and has since disappeared from the US. Albanian mafia in United States operates with extreme violence. Even fellow mobsters are afraid to do business with the Albanian gangs. Speaking anonymously for Philadelphia's City Paper a member of the "Kielbasa Posse", an ethnic Polish mob group, declared in 2002 that Poles are willing to do business with "just about anybody. Dominicans. Blacks. Italians. Asian street gangs. Russians. But they won't go near the Albanian mob. The Albanians are too violent and too unpredictable." While FBI concurs with the brutality assessment, the difficulty in obtaining operational intelligence on the Albanian mafia, and any convictions, may be multifold. Dusan Janjic, Coordinator of the Forum for Ethnic Relations in Serbia, cites three reasons for the success of the Albanian criminal gangs: "Firstly they speak a language that few people [sic] understand. Secondly, its internal organization is based on family ties, breeding solidarity and safety. Thirdly there is the code of silence and it is perfectly normal for somebody to die if he violates the code." Another case of one of the most powerfull original 15 families happens to be with a leader of Albanian crime gang arrested in Turkey . Alfred Shkurti, leader of the "Aldo Bare" crime gang family. Shkurti's gang operated out of Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania, trafficking drugs to Western Europe, according to Albanian Interior Minister Sokol Olldashi. Albanian prosecutors say Shkurti, who also goes by the name Aldo Bare, was behind more than 15 murders and several hijackings, as well as the destruction of property and the desecration graves. In 1997, Shkurti killed and decapitated the alleged killer of his brother, showing off the head of his victim in his hometown of Lushnja, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the capital, Tirana, according to Olldashi. Olldashi said Shkurti used fake Macedonian passports to move in and out of Albania. Albanian organized crime groups have in house money laundering system and political connections that most criminal organizations only dream about. They are also among underworld's most connected outfits and majority of their bosses and operatives remain unknown to law enforcement. The 34 families today are beginning to become the most powerfull criminal organizations you have never heard about.

References

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See also

• Princ Dobroshi
• Sex trafficking
• Mafia