Albanian mafia
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Albanian Mafia
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The Albanian Mafia or Albanian
Organized Crime are the general terms used for criminal organizations based
in Albania or composed of ethnic Albanians. Albanian organized crime is active in Albania, the United
States, and the European
Union (EU) countries, participating in a
diverse range of criminal enterprises including drug
and arms trafficking.
In Albania alone there are over 15 mafia families or clans that control
organized crime.[1][2][3]
Structure
The typical structure of the
Albanian Mafia is hierarchical[4].
Concerning "loyalty", "honor" and family (blood relations
and marriage being very important) most of the Albanian networks seem to be
"old-fashioned". Infiltration into these groups is thus very
difficult. Albanian Mafia families or clans are usually made up of groups of
fewer than 100 members, constituting an extended family residing all along the
Balkan route from Eastern Turkey, to Western Europe, and North America. The Northern
Albanian Mafia which runs the drug wholesale business is also known by the name
of "The Fifteen Families."[5]
According to Ioannis Michaletos, the
family structure is characterized by a strong inner discipline, which is
achieved by a means of punishment for every deviation from the internal rules,
so that the fear should guarantee an unconditional loyalty to the family, with
the provisions of the official laws considered to be secondary, not important
and non-binding. Due to the fact that the Mafia families are based on the blood
ties, which is a factor that restricts the number of the clan members, the
bonds between them are very strong, which makes getting close to and infiltrating
into them almost impossible. Members of other ethnic groups can be accepted
only to execute certain one time or secondary jobs. Moreover, the Albanian
mafia families are organized in 3-4 or more levels, which enable them to
preserve the organizational action capability even in case some of its members
or groups are captured[6]
Rudaj
Organization
The most famous Albanian criminal
organization was the Rudaj Organization.
In October 2004, the FBI arrested 22 men who worked for it. This included its
leader Alex Rudaj,
and effectively ended the criminal organization. They had entered in the
territory of Lucchese crime family in Astoria,
Queens, New York, and are said to have
even beaten up two made men in the Lucchese family. The name Rudaj comes from
the boss of the organization. According to The New York Times published on January 2006, "Beginning in the 1990s,
the Corporation, led by a man named Alex Rudaj, established ties with
established organized crime figures including members of the Gambino crime family, the authorities say. Then, through negotiations or in
armed showdowns, the Albanians struck out on their own, daring to battle the
Lucchese and Gambino families for territory in Queens, the Bronx and
Westchester County, prosecutors say."[7]
"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[8].
International
activity
Scandinavia
"The ethnic Albanian mafia is
very powerful and extremely violent," said Kim Kliver, chief investigator
for organized crime
with the Danish National Police. Law enforcement authorities estimate that
different Albanian mafia families may smuggle as much as 440 pounds of heroin a
year into Scandinavia
at any given time.[9]
United
States
"On the streets where the
Italian Mob once ruled, a new syndicate was taking over, run by tough,
ambitious Albanian immigrants, who still clump to a code of silence." -
“We’re still trying to learn about their culture and figure out what makes them
tick,” James Farley, FBI supervisory special agent, and expert on organized
crime, says of the Albanians. “They’re difficult to infiltrate.” “We’re just
now catching up with Albanian organized crime,” he says. While Italian
gangsters may be three or four generations removed from the old country, the
Albanians grew up under brutal communist regimes, engaging in protracted blood
feuds with rival clans, and subscribing to a strict code of silence that makes
the Italian credo of omertà seem playful. “The first generation Albanians have
a tendency to be more violent” than American-born syndicates, claims Hall.[10]
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
under the Iliazi family name.[11] Albanian organized crime has created new and unique
problems for law-enforcement officers around the country, even threatening to
displace La Cosa Nostra (LCN) families as kingpins of U.S. crime, according to FBI officials.[12]
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."[13] The Polish mob
has told its associates that the Albanians are like the early Sicilian
Mafia — clannish, secretive,
hypersensitive to any kind of insult, and too quick to use violence for the
sake of vengeance.[13]
The Rudaj Organization,
also called "The Corporation", was a well known Albanian criminal
organization operating in the New
York City metro area.
Italy
Albanian emigrants started arriving
at Italian ports in 1991. By 1997 the immigration had come under the control of
Albanian and Italian criminal groups, tightening relationships between them[14]
The Albanians are targeting affluent
central and northern areas like Lombardy, Piedmont,
and Tuscany. One of Italy's top prosecutors, Cataldo Motta, who has identified Albania's most dangerous mobsters, says
they are a threat to Western society.
"The road for arms and people, meaning illegal
immigrants destined for Europe, is in Albanian hands."[15]
"The Albanian Mafia seems to
have established good working relationships with the Italian Mafia".[16] "On the 27th of July 1999 police in Durres (Albania),
with Italian assistance arrested one of the godfathers of the "Sacra
Corona Unita", Puglia’s Italian Mafia. This Albanian link seems to confirm
that the Sacra Corona Unita and the Albanian Mafia are "partners" in
Puglia/Italy and delegate several criminal activities".[16] Thus, in many areas of Italy, the market for cannabis,
prostitution, and smuggling is run mainly by Albanians. Links to Calabria’s
Mafia, the "Ndrangheta", exist in Northern Italy. Several key figures
of the Albanian Mafia seem to reside frequently in the Calabrian towns of
Perugia, Africo, Plati, and Bovalino (Italy), fiefs of the Ndrangheta. Southern
Albanian groups also have good relationships with Sicily’s Cosa Nostra[16]
"The Albanian criminals were
special from the beginning," said Francesca Marcelli, an organized-crime
investigator for the Italian government. They have strong motivations and are
very violent."[17]
Roberto Saviano, The Italian writer,
a good expert of Neapolitan Camorra and the Italian mafia in general, spoke of
the Albanian mafia as a “no longer foreign mafia” to Italy and stressed that
the Albanians and Italians have a "brotherly" relationship between
eachother. Saviano notes that the Camorra from Naples can't understand the Russian clans, which aren't based on family ties, and feels greater
affinity with the Albanian crime families.[18].
In an Albanian television station
""ShqipTV" Saviano went on to say that the Albanian and Italian
factions are "one of the same", and that they dont consider eachother
as foreigners.[19]
United
Kingdom
Albanian mafia gangs are believed to
be largely behind sex trafficking, immigrants smuggling, as well as working
with Turkish gangs in Southend-On-Sea, who control the heroin trade in the United
Kingdom.[20][21] Vice squad
officers estimate that "Albanians now control more than 75 per cent of the
country’s brothels and their operations in London’s Soho alone are worth more than £15 million a year." They
are said to be present in every big city in Britain as well as many smaller
ones including Telford
and Lancaster,
after having fought off rival criminals in turf wars.[22]
Albanian gangsters were also
involved in the largest cash robbery in British crime history, the £53 million
(about US$92.5 million at the time of the robbery) Securitas heist
in 2006.[23]
Germany
"Ethnic Albanians" (as the
German police officially calls them), no matter where they come from — Albania,
Republic of Macedonia, or Kosovo — created for a very short time in the last
decade of the century, a very powerful criminal network, says Manfred
Quedzuweit, director of the Police Department for Fighting the Organized Crime
in Hamburg.Here, it could be heard that they are even more dangerous than
Cosa Nostra.[24] Albanian "banks" in Germany are a special story.
They are used for the transfer of money from Germany which amounts to a billion
of D-marks a year. One of these banks was discovered by accident by the
Düsseldorf police when they were checking a travel agency "Eulinda"
owned by the Albanians. We haven't found a single catalogue or brochure for
travelling at the agency, computers were not operating, nor the printer has
been ever used. We found that "Eulinda" was a coverup for some other
business, said high criminal counselor from Düsseldorf Rainer Bruckert.
Eventually we found out that "Eulinda" had already transferred 150
million dollars to Kosovo — for "humanitarian purposes", says
Bruckert. Money has been transferred by the couriers in special waist belts with
many pockets. So, in a single one-way trip, they can carry up to six million
D-marks.[24]
Belgium
The Albanian mafia has deep roots in
Belgium, which was recently a topic of a special programme on Belgian RTBF
Channel One. Reporters tried to investigate the roots of Albanian organized
crime but have complained that it is too hard to penetrate the structure and
organization of the Albanian mafia, but set out that the Albanian mafia acts on
the model of the Italian one, whose crime is part of the "activities of
entire families" and which has a clearly defined hierarchy.The Albanian
mafia in Brussels has monopoly over activities such as "narcotics and arms
deals" according to Belgian sources.[25]
Australia
Godfather of an Albanian Mafia
family 'Daut Kadriovski' gained attention of Australian Authorities after
creating a drug pipeline through Albanian and Croatian communities in Sydney
and Brisbane.[26]
Prominent
Albanian Mafioso
·
Alfred Shkurti (also known as Aldo Bare): The boss of one of the most
notorious criminal syndicates in Albania known as the “Banda e Lushnjës” (The Lushnja Gang).
·
Enver
Sekiraqa: Leading person of organized crime
in Kosovo, aka “the boss of the bosses”, who is on the Interpol’s wanted list
for several crimes.
·
Ismail
Lika: Ismail Lika was an Albanian
mobster active in New York City in the 1980s. Dubbed the king of the New York
drug underworld, Ismail Lika issued a contract on Rudy
Giuliani's prosecutors in 1985. Caught with
at least $125 million in heroin, Lika issued a $400,000 contract on the
prosecutor Alan Cohen and the detective Jack Delemore, both placed under
protective custody.[27]
·
Daut Kadriovski: The reputed boss of one of the 15 Families, embodies the
tenacity of the top Albanian drug traffickers.
·
Osmani Brothers: According to the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND)
the Osmani brothers as the "most important figures of organized crime in
Hamburg and other cities in Germany"[28]
·
Adriatik Coli: Leader of one of the most powerful "15 families"
known as " Banda e Lul Berishës" based in Durrës, Albania.
·
Krasniqi Brothers: Bruno Krasniqi and Saimir Krasniqi; leaders of an
international crime organization engaged in murder, kidnapping, narcotics
trafficking and other illegal activities in Albania and the U.S.
·
Myfit (Mike) Dika: Former drug kingpin of the “Balkan Criminal Enterprises,”;
an international criminal organization which spanned from Canada, the United
States, to Europe.[29]
·
Kapllan
Murat: Belgium's most notorious mobster.
He was one of the masterminds behind the kidnapping of former Belgian Prime
Minister Paul Vanden Boeynants in 1989. Three days later, the criminals published a note
in the leading Brussels newspaper Le
Soir, demanding 30 million Belgian
francs in ransom. Paul Vanden Boeynants was released (physically unharmed) a month later, on 13
February, when an undisclosed ransom was paid to the perpetrators.[30]
·
Plaurent
"Lenti" Dervisha: On the
Interpol's and FBI's most wanted list as being the leading member of a criminal
organization based out of Durrës, Albania,
who Albanian authorities say is the brother-in-law of Lul Berisha;a reputed leader of one of the 15 mafia families.
In
popular culture
In
films
·
An Albanian criminal organization in
Paris is responsible for the kidnapping of Liam
Neeson's character's daughter in Taken.
·
Le Chiffre is the main villain of
the 2006 James Bond film, Casino Royale, portrayed by Danish actor Mads
Mikkelsen. Believed by MI6 to be Albanian, Le
Chiffre is banker to the world's terrorist organizations.
·
In the French movie The Nest
the plot centers around an Albanian mob boss in police custody being escorted
to the Hague.
·
In the movie "In With Thieves" A blood diamond deal goes wrong which throws Albanian
Mafioso into chaos in the criminal underworld.
In
Television
·
In the "Law and Order:
Criminal Intent" episode "Blasters" (Season 6, Episode 9) two
former childstars involved in bootlegging ring are being hunted down by the
Albanian mob.
·
The story arc "The
Slavers" of the adult-oriented Marvel comic The Punisher: Frank Castle deals with Albanian criminals engaged in human trafficking.
·
In the American TV show "No Ordinary Family" episode
"No-Ordinary Mobster" deals with the main character attempting to
stop violent Albanian Mobsters.
·
Top Gear,
a British car show, featured an episode (comedy) in which they tested three
luxury automakers; Rolls-Royce
Ghost, Mercedes-Benz S-Class, and Bentley
Mulsanne, to see which would be best
suitable for Albanian Mafia bosses.
In
Games
·
The videogame Grand Theft Auto IV features the "Petrela gang" a small crew of
Albanian shylocks and goods smugglers. The only known members are Dardan
Petrela, Kalem Vulaj, and Bledar Morina. Later in the game, Albanian gangs
appear working as muscle for other organizations, such as the Cosa Nostra or the Bratva.
In Liberty City the Albanian mob holds a stronghold in the Little Bay
section of Bohan.
References
1. ^
http://www.humsec.eu/cms/fileadmin/user_upload/humsec/Journal/Stojarova_Organized_Crime_in_the_Western_Balkans.pdf
2. ^
http://books.google.ca/books?id=UcrWRVykMgEC&pg=PA154&lpg=PA154&dq=the+fifteen+families+albanian&source=bl&ots=JIFrh-dvM4&sig=G5VFL8-pKitwxvVlNskjGdvoL2w&hl=en&ei=a1l-Tsa2Nojj0QHwnJgD&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=the%20fifteen%20families%20albanian&f=false
13. ^
a
b
Brendan McGarvey (2002-12-12). "Another group
of Eastern-European gunsels makes its mark".
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2002-12-12/cb3.shtml.
14. ^
Celestine Bohlen (March 19, 1997), "Italian Port
Is 'Tired of Seeing These Albanians'", New
York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/19/world/italian-port-is-tired-of-seeing-these-albanians.html
15. ^
"Albanian mafia steps up people
smuggling", BBC, 3 August 2000, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/863620.stm
16. ^
a
b
c
Ralf Mutschke (Assistant Director, Criminal Intelligence Directorate) (13
December 2000), The Threat Posed by
the Convergence of Organized Crime, Drugs Trafficking and Terrorism (written
testimony to the U.S. Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime),
Interpol, http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/congress/2000_h/001213-mutschke.htm
17. ^
Fleishman, Jeffrey (15 March 1999) "Philadelphia Inquirer - Refugees are
cutting into the Mafia turf", Philadelphia Inquirer, p. A01. (Newsbank)
18. ^
http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Regions-and-countries/Balkans/Roberto-Saviano-on-the-mafia-and-Eastern-Europe
20. ^
Thompson, Tony. Gangs: A Journey into the heart of the British Underworld,
2004 ISBN 0-340-83053-0
^ http://www.docstoc.com/docs/70396059/List-of-kidnappings
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