Posted on 04/14/2008 11:40:51 PM PDT by Bokababe
BELGRADE- The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has released a new report that the axis between South American drug cartels and the Albanian mafia have reached "alarming proportions".
According to reports by several intelligence agencies, Kosovo is a distribution center on the crossroads of global routes and pathways of drug trafficking.
“This represents 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 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 UNODC annual report for 2007 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 states.
“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, adding that 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.
The Link to the Global Albanian Criminal Network is a treasure trove of info drom the 1990’s. Please put me on the American Balkin ping list....thanks.
Sen. McCain’s financiers!
Bingo, El Wapo enjoys the benefits of porous borders and drug money contributions.
drug money—Islamic network funding-—foot solders in the expansion of Islam...destroy the enemy from within—where have we heard that before?
It fits perfectly.
What’s the big deal here? All Balkan mafias are allied.....Albanians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Bulgars, Croatians. Bokan, one of the leading Serb mafiosos, was executed by Colombians on behalf of other Serbian mafiosos back in cigarette wars.
The Albanian Mafia's reach extends far beyond the Balkans, while the others are more like "franchises" of the core businesses.
Cigarette smuggling is more localized crime (avoiding taxes), while drugs, human trafficking, and weapons-smuggling are not -- they affect far more than just the Balkans -- as this report attests.
Yes, it is. It also makes a lot of sense of many of the stories that Joan has posted re an inordinate number of Albanians having been caught committing crimes like carjacking, running prostitution rings, etc, all over the world.
"Please put me on the American Balkin ping list....thanks."
You are on!
Arkan was making around $1 million a day by 1997 with heroin from Kosovo. The only difference is that the Albanians are now stronger than the Serbs in places like Germany, Switzerland, and Italy...the Serbs only control the transit thru their own country (and sometimes the heroin transit into Switzerland).
So you approve of Mafia related activity regardless of their source?
Yes.
But, the Serbian mafia has waned since the fall of Milosevic and especially since the assassination of Zoran Djincic. The Serbian authorities are after them now.
By contrast, the Albanian Mafia is thriving, virtually impenetrable because they are tied by blood and their influence is growing everywhere. Albania isn't doing a damn thing about them. And in Kosovo, the Kosovo Albanian leadership IS the Albanian Mafia and they are being protected by NATO.
I didn't write the article or the UN report here, Dio. The people who did obviously see the Albanian Mafia as a far bigger global threat than those of their other Balkan cohorts -- the other Balkan mafias are more parasitic than they are threats unto themselves.
What happened, did you discover an "Albanian gene" in your family tree or are you just throwing red herrings into the argument because you are bored today?
Of course not.
Then you answered your own question!
I agree with your post, it’s very well put.
Wow, I’m blushing. Thanks, Dio. ;)
The kind of campaigning Albanians have done in the US over twenty years is enormous and likely has run in the tens, if not hundreds of $millions. Where did that money come from? And what did "an independent Kosovo" do for them? It secured Albanian drug, arms and human trafficking routes -- and that is who likely paid for the lobbying!
Albeit a minor point, Dio, but are you sure your number is correct? :-)
UN and NATO mafia. They are no better than anyone and yet they cloak themselves in democracy, tolerance and peace.
The big boys use this “coalition” to take what they want from others and give table scraps to those to tag along.
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
“A lie cannot live.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
This tyranny will come to an end one way or another.
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