Posted on 03/26/2008 9:48:42 AM PDT by Bokababe
NEW YORK -- The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has released a new report.
It warned that the axis between South American drug cartels and the Albanian mafia have reached "alarming proportions", while reports by several intelligence agencies show that Kosovo is a distribution center on the crossroads of global routes and pathways of drug trafficking.
This presents reason for concern, primarily because of the new pathways of drug trafficking, and "inclusion of cocaine in the range of products offered by the groups that are active along the Balkan drug route", the UNODC annual report for 2007 said.
The Albanian mafia has recently begun taking over the control of ports in Romania, in addition to the already solid network existing in Albania and Montenegro, the report said.
This warning by UNODC is the latest in a series of alarming reports by a number of agencies in charge of fighting organized crime, including the FBI, Interpol and Europol, which state that the Albanian mafia is the most serious criminal organization in Europe because it controls a huge part of the heroin trade in a number of European state - Switzerland, Greece, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Norway, and, recently, in Great Britain.
The western European heroin market, of which 40 to 75 percent is controlled by Albanians, brings annual earnings of around USD 7bn, which makes the trafficking in this type of narcotic by far the most profitable activity in the Balkans, western intelligence services have reported.
The territory that includes Albania, Kosovo and western Macedonia is a huge drug warehouse. Its contents are drugs measured not in kilograms, but in tons, a western diplomat posted in the Balkans said in a statement for Tanjug new agency, explaining how intelligence sources estimate that there are at least seven tons of heroin in this region at all times, ready to be moved to the West.
Former official of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Michael Levine has said that one of the wings of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was "linked with every known narco-cartel in the Middle East and the Far East", and that almost every European intelligence service and police has files on "connections between ethnic Albanian rebels and drug trafficking".
"Albania and Kosovo are the heart of the Balkan drug trade route which links Pakistan and Afghanistan with Europe. That route is worth around USD 7bn annually and around 80 percent of the heroin intended for the western European market is smuggled along this route," said a report presented to the U.S. Congress.
International representatives in Kosovo complained in the recent years that it is "difficult to estimate, in the complicated relations on the political scene of the Kosovo Albanians and ethnic Albanians in Macedonia or southern Serbia, whether politics controls organized crime or the mafia controls politicians".
The agency says it its report that it is "also possible, however, that organized criminal groups in Kosovo in fact have no influence on the authorities because they are actually those who are in power, as Italian General Fabio Mini said on his departure from the post of commander of KFOR, the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo".
Oh, no! Perish the thought that the wonderful Albanians might be criminals!
B92- Serbian station... Take this with a grain of salt... Clearly, they have an axe to grind.
B92: the station that usually is trying to shove Kosovo independence and EU membership down Serbs throats. There are more Albanians who post there than Serbs, and ex-US Ambassador Montgomery has a regular column there.
This kind of article is unusually forthright for B92. Their propaganda usually goes the other way.
and a righteous axe in my view
Bokababe, have you read about the several occasions of Albania ns and Kosovar albanians being caught crossing our southern border....it’s a small world after all....
I defer to you, as you seem to know more about that station than I do.
No, but it doesn't surprise me. The Albanian Mafia drug connection is long and well--established. Here is a cached version of a page citing articles on the Albanian Mafia & drugs all the way back to the 1980's.
B92 is a Soros funded propaganda outfit, you conveniently ignore this fact along with the idiots who are claiming that Carla Del Ponte is now a propagandist for Serbs.
Yes, but something is happening over there at B92. Generally, I only used them as a source for information, aware of the spin it was putting on things. Yet, since Kosovo declared independence, it has been producing less anti-Serb, pro-Albanian propaganda and doing some actual factual reporting. Can't tell you why.
Kosovo while under serbian control became a drug nation.
Good thing we can now stop it.
"War on Drugs", "War on Terror"? Right.....
LOL! Sure, believe that of it keeps you warm at night.
Wrong. I didn't know that... and I DESPISE Soros.
As usual when it comes to Serbs and Serbia, you are wrong. B92 is based in Serbia but it is George Soros owned outlet. They are as anti-Serb as one can gets.
Perthaps you are irked that Albanian narcoterrorists are put into the right perspective, even by Soros-owned outlet. Btw. reports about Albanian narcoterorism are not of Serbian provenance.
From the hills of Afghanistan and the forrests of Columbia, to the canyon of Wall Street, all under one umbrella.
War on Drugs is another name for elimination of competition.
Since some detractors call evidence about Albanian narcoterrorist activity Serbian propaganda, here is the same from other non-Serbian, non-American sources.
The author is leading French criminologist and expert on terrorism.
Look at post 16
You sound just like a Leftist describing Fox News!
They are as anti-Serb as one can gets.
Actually you cannot hear any anti-serbian comments or analysis on TV B92 news now, but you can find a LOT of those in comments or blogs by some NGOs on B92 site and it`s outrage for every patriot in Serbia (it is politically correct to say “ethnical solidarity” rather then patriotism, otherwise you could be labeled as nacionalist). A day ago I read a blog named Faleminderit NATO that at first mentioned victims of NATO bombing (well, in the way of statistics: 78 days of bombing, 1002 army and police members killed, 2500 civilians - 89 children, during 2300 ours of air raid, with help of 4000 bombs and rokets = all cold and dry facts), then she explains her attitude of necessity of “humanitarian interventions”, then, just formaly criticized the statement (Thank you NATO thing) of so called president Saidiu of so called state of Kosovo. It seems she wantet to point that Serbs themselves are guilty for all harassment they got from the west. And that on the 9th anniversary of NATO agression. Bad.
I’m not surprised that those who don’t like the truth about the Albanian criminals and the Jihadists attempt to smear the Serbs for telling them the truth.
I’m anything but a leftist.
He's not a welcomed fixture in the Balkans, I believe the Croatians won't even allow him in the country.
Are you left handed?
The problem is that there are few news outlets in Serbia that are in English. B92 & Blic are pretty much it.
By 8:30 p.m., in addition to the usual complement of ambassadors and diplomats, the living room is filled with an A-list New Yorkers might recognize. Super-agent Binky Urban is schmoozing with Time editor Walter Isaacson. Barbara Walters races in, apologizing for running late. Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen are on hand, having flown in from L.A. (Steenburgen's mother knows Wesley Clark's mom back in Arkansas).
Dressed in a formal pin-striped suit, crisp white shirt, and red tie, Holbrooke still manages to look comfortably rumpled -- his unruly hair is the secret to this effect -- as he banters his way around the room. Introducing (Wesley)Clark to billionaire financier George Soros and Canadian press lord Conrad Black, Holbrooke teasingly calls the general, whose formal title is supreme Allied commander for Europe, "The Supreme," then launches into a hummed rendition of "Stop! In the Name of Love."
Here’s a good one to follow that UN report on illegal drugs in Kosovo.
Once again they are blocking medicine deliveries to Serb hospitals in Kosovo, unless they have a permit from “The Kosovo Drug Agency”. What is this? Albanians eliminating the competition for drugs in Kosovo?
After similar incidents three weeks ago, several days ago new supplies, sent to Lipljan, were held at the UNMIK customs terminal in the southern part of Kosovska Mitrovica, UNMIK Customs spokesman Adriatik Stavileci confirmed for Tanjug Wednesday.
The shipment includes medicines worth RSD 1.7mn, which were to cover the needs of the medical centers in Dobrotin and Guterica in the Lipljan municipality, Crnaglavica-based KIM radio reported.
Stavileci told Tanjug that the reason for this is that the medicines lack “valid documentation”– an import certificate issued by the “Kosovo Drug Agency”.
He underscored that the confiscated medicines and a sanitary vehicle will only be released if the Kosovo health ministry approves it.
Director of the Medical Center in Gracanica Rada Trajkovic said that “the essence of this act is to impose pressure on sick people in the enclaves, because this is the second time that UNMIK customs service does not allow a shipment of medicines to reach their destination.”
“This pressure destabilizes Serbs, Roma, Gorani, Croats, and even Albanians who are treated at our institutions,” said Trajkovic, adding that this is “yet another attempt to cause a humanitarian disaster.”
On March 3, UNMIK customs confiscated a shipment of medicines, medical equipment and sanitary material sent to medical institutions in central Kosovo. The shipment reached its destination after ten days with the mediation of the World Health Organization, WHO.
UNMIK Spokesperson Methild Heneke said in Pristina today that the shipment, seized by UNMIK, will be detained until a permit is obtained from the Kosovo Drug Agency.
“UNMIK is again helping with this case, as it has done on previous occasions. The problem is not with UNMIK, but with the importers. Imports of medicines must be licensed through the Kosovo organ in charge of medicines,” Heneke told a news conference.
“The latest shipment from Serbia had a license and the civilian administration department helped to secure that license, maintaining the connection between the partners,” the spokeswoman said.
Heneke reiterated that future shipments will also be stopped unless they contain a license from the Kosovo Drug Agency
These rabid Milosevikniks want us to believe Soros propaganda as long as it is against Albanians and not Serbs. As long as Soros agrees with them, they eat his propaganda up.
Source: DEA report, 1996.
This was before Cocaine Importation Agency hired Albanian goons.
Here is another Serbian, Giulianovich
God forbid that one speck falls on poor innocent Albanian narcoterrorists, trusted ally of U.S.A.
Here you go, this is the candidate for you: http://www.barackobama.ru/
You human dip stick, you haven’t yet figure out that Christian Serbs despised Milosevich?
No, your still counting Soviet Red under your bed because you are that dim!!!
Yes Joe, we know that you are putting on the kneepads for the “BOMB SERBIA” Be-atch!
Tailgunner is the dhimmest of the dhimmies!
Didn’t you realize that “Tailgunner” was code for “I bend over for Jihadists?”
Of course, he/she/it has. But he/she/it may also know that it was a guy named "Milo Radulovich", who was the key to Edward R. Murrow taking down his namesake, "Tailgunner Joe" (Joseph) McCarthy.
What he/she/it hasn't figured out is that Milo Radulovich was actually an ethnic Montenegrin born in the USA. Neither he nor his family were ever "from Serbia". I know because he was a dear friend of mine and I went to his funeral a few months ago.
Ironically, Milo wasn't "a Liberal" either. He was just a guy caught in a bad situation who did the best he could to rectify an unfair decision. He didn't chose to make history or change politics in the USA. History just happened to choose him.
More irony, Ronald Reagan knew exactly who Milo was and called him personally on a regular basis when he was Governor of California to "get the weather". He called Milo "his favorite weatherman"
Hell you can say that about every single news agency here. They are all propaganda tools for political interests both global and domestic. Also, there are lots of international stories you can pick up in other papers that US media will never print.
When American kids start dying for subsidizing the Albanian heroin trade, then maybe you will come out of your drunken stupor.
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