Albanian Mafia Part I

 Albanian mafia or Albanian organized crime (Albanian: Mafia shqiptare) are the general terms used for criminal organizations based in Albania or composed of ethnic Albanians. Albanian organized crime is active mostly in Europe and South America, but also in various other parts of the world, including the Middle East and Asia. The Albanian criminal groups participate in a diverse range of criminal enterprises including trafficking in drugs, arms, and humans. Due to their close ties with the 'Ndrangheta of Calabria, they control a large part of the billion dollar wholesale cocaine market in Europe and appear to be the primary distributors of cocaine in various European drug hubs including London. Albanian organized crime is characterized by diversified criminal enterprises which, in their complexity, demonstrate a very high criminal capacity.

The Albanian criminal groups has monopolized various international affiliations, from as far east as Israel to as far west as South America. These reports primarily indicate a strong connection between politicians and various Albanian crime groups. According to the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS), Albanian crime groups are hybrid organizations (i.e. composed of people from various sectors of society), and are often involved in both criminal and political activities.

The Albanian mafia constitutes one of the highest crime generating elements in the world, combining the "traditional" characteristics of organized crime – its rigid internal discipline, its clan structure, its "endogamic closure" (marrying within the organization) which increases the organization's impermeability, and its internal cohesion – with modern and innovative characteristics, such as transnationality. The massive logistic capacity and the diverse nature of Albanian organized crime have facilitated its establishment outside the mother country and its integration with local criminal elements.

History

With the fall of communism in Albania in the early 1990s and the transition to democracy, Albania went through severe political and economic instability. The country faced an economic crisis, and many citizens turned to illicit activities to survive. It was in this environment that the Albanian mafia began to structure itself and expand, particularly in areas like drug trafficking, smuggling, prostitution and human trafficking.

The Albanian mafia took advantage of the lack of government control, the collapse of institutions, and widespread poverty. Proximity to other countries in the region, such as Italy, Greece, and the former Yugoslavia, also helped establish international connections. Many mafia members were involved in the heroin trade from Asia to Europe, as well as arms trafficking and other criminal activities.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Albanian criminal organizations began expanding into other countries, particularly Western Europe. Italy, in particular, became a key focus for the Albanian mafia, with criminal groups present mostly in Central and Northern Italy, in cities like Milan and Rome. The Albanian mafia became involved in drug trafficking, especially heroin and cocaine, and arms trafficking, often collaborating with other international criminal organizations. Albanian criminal groups were highly organized and operated very discreetly, making it difficult for authorities to intervene. Violence, extortion, and threats were frequently used as means of control.

Albanian criminal groups are known for its decentralized structure, with multiple families or clans operating independently but sharing common goals. These clans operate in transnational networks and are famous for their brutality, loyalty among members, and tight control over their criminal activities. Additionally, the Albanian mafia is notorious for its ability to infiltrate legal and political institutions, using corruption to protect its operations. They are highly efficient in drug trafficking, often employing sophisticated methods of transportation and distribution.

Structure and composition

Clan hierarchy

The typical structure of the Albanian crime groups is hierarchical. A family clan is referred to as a "fis" or a "fare." Families contain an executive committee known as a "Bajrak" and select a high-ranking member for each unit. A unit is led by a "Krye" or "Boss" who selects "Kryetar" or "Underbosses" to serve under them. The Kryetar will then choose a "Mik" or "Friend" who acts as a liaison to members and is responsible for coordinating unit activities.

According to Altin Dumani, Tirana's Anti-Crime Prosecutor's Office Chief: "Albanian criminal groups are characterized by close family and social ties, but without a clear hierarchy. They operate mainly in small groups and in collaboration with local organizations or with other structured Albanian criminal groups."

Membership

According to Ioannis Michaletos, the family structure is characterised by a strong inner discipline, which is achieved by means of punitive action for every deviation from internal rules. Punishment ensures fear, and fear guarantees unconditional loyalty to the family. Provisions within the family structure allow official laws to be considered secondary, unimportant, and non-binding. Since crime groups are based on blood relations, the number of clan members is limited, and bonds between them tend to be very strong. As a result, infiltrating into the Albanian crime groups is almost impossible. Members of other ethnic groups can be accepted only to execute one time or secondary jobs. The Albanian crime clans are organized in 4–6 or more levels; such a structure enables them to preserve the organizational action capability even in case some of its members or groups are captured.

Rituals and codes of conduct

Besa

The Albanian mafia uses the term besa, meaning "trust", as a name for their "code of honor". During the recruitment process a member inducted into the Albanian mafia is required to take an oath. The oath is then considered sacred because it is defined as a Besë. Besa is extremely important in Albanian culture, and is considered a verbal contract of trust. Especially in North Albania, when somebody gives someone their Besë, they have given someone their life and are going to protect someone with their life.

Organized crime became widespread in Albania during the early 90s, after the fall of communism. Blackmail, intimidation and racketeering became commonplace. A 2003 report by the Office of the Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe remarks that "Albania is the paradise for the illegal trade. Neither state nor police present problem for the drug chiefs: you can buy politicians and it is not rare when a leader of the criminal gang works in some state institution". Albanian crime groups are often involved in both criminal and political activities in order to influence political developments. Albanian Prime Ministers Sali Berisha and Edi Rama have both been linked to organized crime groups in Albania.

International activity

The Albanian mafia is a prominent organized crime group that operates internationally, with a strong presence primarily in Europe, but also in South America, North America and parts of Asia. Its international criminal activities include drug trafficking, human trafficking, arms smuggling, money laundering, and various other illicit enterprises. The group is known for its ability to infiltrate legitimate businesses and has established connections with other transnational criminal organizations, such as the 'Ndrangheta and the other Italian crime groups. The Albanian mafia's influence in global criminal networks continues to grow, making it one of the most feared and well-established criminal groups worldwide.

Albania experienced a rise in gangs and the drug trade following the economic collapse during the 1990s, caused by the pyramid schemes in 1997. The economy's reliance on drug trade and smuggling has led the country to be declared as Europe's only narco-state.

China

The Albanian mafia has extended its activities into China, which was discovered after Chinese authorities uncovered Albanian mafia activity including drug trafficking and prostitution networks. Reports state that the Albanian gangs are involved in drug transporting to various Chinese cities. Further, after smuggling the drugs, they are involved in human smuggling of Chinese nationals to Europe.

Israel

The Israeli government has confirmed its concern that Albanian criminal groups have spread its influence in the country's banking system. The Israeli intelligence agency has called for a close cooperation between Israel and Albania to combat money laundering. Justice Ministry General Manager, Dr. Guy Rotkopf noted; "this is an important step in international cooperation between our countries to combat money laundering with the force of law and to deepen relations between Israel and other countries."

Australia

A lengthy News Corp Australia investigation has found that an Albanian crime group—led by some of Australia’s most wanted men—has established "entrenched infiltration" of almost every level of Australian society and according to Australian Federal Police:

European Organized Crime, primarily the Albanian Mafia is now one of the largest organized crime threats to Australia, so entrenched and disciplined and influential in local communities it has made this a serious challenge to crack.

The mostly Australian run group, led by former Kings Cross identity Vaso Ulić, a Montenegrin immigrant who left Australia in 2005 never to return, was now networked to become one of the biggest transnational crime groups in the world importing six tonnes a year into Australia alone but many more to and from other destinations from South Africa to Europe, China, Nigeria and the Americas with law enforcers from notably the United Kingdom, United States and Italy involved in their pursuance.

Vaso Ulić is a 55-year-old ethnic Montenegrin who migrated to Australia in 1979 and within a few years was working as a small-time foot soldier running drugs and cash along the infamous Golden Mile of Kings Cross but who is now seen as a kingpin of an organization so big, very few drug consignments enter Australia without his knowledge or permission.

It has been confirmed the prosecutions office in Montenegro, where Ulić is residing, has an extensive file on Ulić and other figures in the country as part of an international arrest warrant to break the cartel up.

An internal police assessment relayed to the Federal Government claims their criminality now extends worldwide with direct Australian-Albanian Organized Crime links to notorious Mexican and Colombian clans and cartels and Asian triads including the 14K group, South African crime lords and Italian and Dutch criminal groups, with predominantly Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland, South Australia & Tasmania using motorcycle gangs as part of the national distribution & enforcement network for the Albanians.

Europe

Belgium

The Albanian mafia has deep roots in Belgium, and was 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 difficult to penetrate the structure and organisation of the Albanian crime groups, although they agreed 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.

In 1989, former Belgian Prime Minister Paul Vanden Boeynants was kidnapped in a plot organized by Basri Bajrami. Bajrami was acknowledged by authorities as a member of the Albanian mafia at that time.

The Albanian crime groups in Brussels have monopoly over activities such as "narcotics and arms deals", according to Belgian sources. In Antwerp, the Kosovar-Albanian crime groups are affiliated with the Hells Angels and have rivalled Russian and Ukrainian mafia groups for control of the prostitution and racketeering market.

Safet Bajri also known as "Safet Rustemi" is considered by Belgian authorities as a top criminal, involved in drug trafficking business and active between the country and Albania.

France

The Albanian mafia in France is described as having a monopoly over many criminal transactions including arms and drug trafficking. The Albanian mafia has a strong foothold in France, which is a key strategy as other primary transactions are overseen in neighbouring countries by different crime families and clans. French media has stated that "In many cities of France, there is a network of the Albanian mafia who are involved in narcotics trafficking and prostitution. It is a highly organized network and is very difficult to find their roots and penetrate it".

Germany

The Albanian mafia is involved in smuggling heroin and cocaine into Germany in collusion with Italian, Armenian and Chechen mafia groups. The Osmani Brothers are, according to the German Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst), the "most important figures of organized crime in Hamburg and other cities in Germany".

Greece

A 2013 report by the Greek security services and Greek police on Albanian organized crime in the Hellenic Republic concluded that the Albanian crime groups controls approximately fifty percent of human trafficking, eighty percent of the retail distribution of heroin, and ninety percent of the importation of illegal small arms in Greece, and that about fifty percent of armed robberies of homes and businesses in the country were committed by Albanians. The analysis also drew links between Albanian nationalism and organized crime.

Italy

The geographic vicinity, the accessibility to the EU through Italy, and the ties with the Calabrian and Apulia criminality have all contributed to the expansion of the Albanian criminality on the Italian scenario.

Further factors relative to the economy have rendered the Albanian criminality even more competitive. In fact, some organisations which reached Italy in the early 1990s infiltrated the Lombardy narco-traffic network run by the 'Ndrangheta. Albanian mafia leaders have reached stable agreements with the Italian criminal organisations, also with the mafia, so have gained legitimacy in many illegal circuits, diversifying their activities to avoid reasons of conflict with similar host structures. So, Albanian drug trafficking has emerged in Apulia, Sicily, Calabria and Campania, expanding its drug trafficking operations also in Lazio, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna. The Albanian mafia is highly involved in the drug trafficking in Rome, being considered by the investigations as one of the most important organizations active in the Italian capital. In towns on the outskirts of Rome, in particular in Velletri, the Albanians were also considered for a time to be the main organization dedicated to drug trafficking. One of the most notorious and important criminals of the Albanian mafia operating in and around Rome was Elvis Demce, arrested in 2022 and sentenced to 18 years in jail.

The Albanian mafia is very active in the drug business in the city of Bari, where it established alliances with the city's crime groups, in particular with the Strisciuglio clan. Albanian criminal groups are also responsible for trafficking weapons of war into Bari and its province. Among the figures of the Albanian mafia operating in Bari is Aleksander Hodaj, responsible for massive heroin trafficking between Albania and the city.

Among the most important Albanian mobsters active in Italy are: Arben Zogu: boss of a drug trafficking crime group active in Rome. Ismail Rebeshi: drug lord active in the city of Viterbo and in its province. Ermal Arapaj: drug lord active in the region of Lazio. Dorian Petoku: one of the most notorious Albanian drug traffickers active in Rome. Janku Kristo Dhimitraq also known as "Janku Kristo", born in 1969, involved in a big drug trafficking scheme with the Barese Strisciuglio clan.

Trading route

The Albanian mafia reportedly uses specific trading routes to transport narcotics and illegal immigrants to Italy. Their southern route is via Montenegro and Albania. Access is then gained to Italy by boat.

Sicilian Mafia – Cosa Nostra

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Italy has been clamping down hard on the Sicilian Mafia. According to the deputy director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), at the end of the 1990s the mafia sought to survive this crackdown by forming a "symbiotic" relationship with the Albanian crime families known as fares, which provided the struggling Sicilians a hand in a number of services in their operations across Italy. Today, both Sicilian mafia groups and the 'Ndrangheta are believed to have franchised out prostitution, gambling, and drug dealing in territories along the Adriatic coast to the Albanians. One CSIS report even claimed that this partnership had proved so successful that the Sicilian mafia established a 'headquarters' in Vlorë, a coastal town in southern Albania at the close of the 1990s.

Albanian clandestine immigrants started arriving at Italian ports in 1991. By 1997, the immigration had come under the control of the Albanian and Italian criminal groups, tightening relationships between them. The Albanian criminal gangs have recently created in Sicily relations of interest with the Cosa Nostra.

Sacra Corona Unita

The Albanian mafia seems to have established good working relationships with the Italian organized crime groups, On 27 July 1999 police in Durrës (Albania), with Italian assistance arrested one of the godfathers of the "Sacra Corona Unita", one of the main crime groups based in the region of Apulia. This Albanian link seems to confirm that the Sacra Corona Unita and the Albanian mafia are "partners" in Apulia and delegate several criminal activities. Thus, in many areas of Italy, the market for cannabis, prostitution, and smuggling is run mainly by Albanians.

Camorra

Roberto Saviano, the Italian writer, an expert on the Napolitan Camorra in particular 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 each other. Saviano notes that the Camorra form greater affinity with the Albanian crime families than with other criminal groups from Eastern Europe.

According to the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia, the Albanian mafia has alliances with many Camorra clans, including with the Mazzarella clan and the Amato-Pagano clan, both from Naples and with the Serino clan, from Salerno.

'Ndrangheta

In an Albanian television station Top Channel TV, Saviano went on to say that the Albanian and Italian factions are "one of the same", and that they don't consider each other as foreigners. 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 Africo, Platì, and Bovalino (Italy), fiefs of the 'Ndrangheta.

According to the German Federal Intelligence Service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), in a leaked report to a Berlin newspaper, states that the 'Ndrangheta "act in close cooperation with Albanian crime groups in moving weapons and narcotics across Europe's porous borders".

Società foggiana

According to numerous reports, the brutal criminal organisation from Foggia, known as the Società foggiana has several contacts with the Albanian mafia, particularly regarding to the drug trafficking business, also creating drugs routes from Albania to Foggia. In 2020 the Italian police noticed that there is a scheme in the city of San Severo, in the Province of Foggia, between the Albanians and the Società foggiana.

Netherlands

According to Dutch police, Albanian crime groups lead the importation of cocaine from South America, the transshipment via the port of Rotterdam, and the further distribution to other European countries from Amsterdam. In addition to cocaine trafficking, the Albanian mafia in the Netherlands is also engaged in human trafficking and property fraud. In June 2019, the government of the Netherlands requested the suspension of visa-free travel for Albanians, citing claims the Albanian mafia is free to move across the Europe because of the visa-free European Union regime.

Scandinavia

Kosovar-Albanian criminals first immigrated to Scandinavia during the Kosovo War of the late 1990s. The Albanian mafia, along with the Serbian mafia, controls heroin, weapon and sex trafficking in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Law enforcement authorities estimate that various Albanian crime groups may each smuggle as much as 440 pounds of heroin a year into Scandinavia. Albanian crime groups in the region are also involved in armed robberies and heists. According to Kim Kliver, chief investigator for organized crime with the Danish National Police, "The ethnic Albanian mafia is very powerful and extremely violent. If you compare them to the Italian Mafia, the Albanians are stronger and not afraid of killing."

Naser Xhelili was coined by Swedish authorities as the "Albanian Connection" in Sweden. The Xhelili clan operations include drugs and arms trafficking in and around Sweden.

Spain

According to Spanish authorities, the Albanian mafia is composed of powerful organized factions. In a report by Spanish authorities, the factions have infiltrated banks and industrial estates. They are very active in Madrid and Costa Del Sol. Fejzulla Haredin, a drug baron and head of a Kosovar-Albanian criminal organization, was on the list of 'Europe's Most Wanted' criminals until his arrest in Madrid in 2024.

Switzerland

Geneva Deputy Public Prosecutors states that the Albanian mafia is one of the most powerful ones among eight identified mafias in the world. The Geneva deputy public prosecutors also added that the Albanian mafia "is laundering a part of income in Geneva economy, restaurants, bars, real estate and cabarets".