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The Albanian Islamic Cultural Center in Tompkinsville was among several sites under surveillance in that neighborhood by the NYPD, based on a secret department report obtained by The Associated Press. (See full report below.) A tower and crescent moon are silhouetted by the sun at the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center in Tompkinsville. The NYPD targeted the Tompkinsville neighborhood within the 120th Precinct because it had seen a "high influx" of Albanian immigrants from Montenegro, Kosovo and a "small percentage" from Albania. The secret NYPD report said that "Albanian businesses" were concentrated along Victory Boulevard and included hangouts such as social...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Albanian criminal enterprises, operating largely in New York and other Eastern seaboard cities, represent a major challenge to federal agents because of their propensity for violence and brutality, the officials said. "They are a hardened group, operating with reckless abandon," said Chris Swecker, the newly named FBI assistant director for the Criminal Investigative Division...Officials said ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro are included in the clans and crews that emerged in the organized crime world.... ... Although no terrorism connection has been discovered, the FBI says it is closely watching to see whether the militant...

FBI: Albanian mobsters 'new Mafia' From Justice Producer Terry Frieden Wednesday, August 18, 2004 Posted: 10:06 PM EDT (0206 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Thousands of Albanians and others who fled the Balkans for the United States in recent years have emerged as a serious organized crime problem, threatening to displace La Cosa Nostra (LCN) families as kingpins of U.S. crime, top FBI officials said Wednesday.The Albanian criminal enterprises, operating largely in New York and other Eastern seaboard cities, represent a major challenge to federal agents because of their propensity for violence and brutality, the officials said.

THREE ALBANIAN AMERICANS FOUND IN A MASS GRAVE IN SERBIA     Ossining, New York, July 14, 2001—The story leading up to the discovery of documents on the bodies of Agron, Mehmet, and Ylli Bytyqi in a mass grave in Petrovo Selo, Serbia, began on July 2, when the Albanian American Civic League held a book signing and reception in Yonkers, New York, in honor of General Wesley Clark, NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Europe for the critical role that he played in putting a stop to Slobodan Milosevic’s decade-long genocidal march across Southeast Europe. During the question-and-answer session that followed...

Macedonia/US: NAAC denies reports of Macedonian media Representatives of the New York-based National Albanian American Council (NAAC) denied Monday the reports of Macedonian media saying that Albanian Diaspora in the United States will stage a Pan-Albanian congress in Macedonia this summer. In an interview with Pristina’s daily Koha Ditore, the NAAC Trustee Harry Bajraktari said the information was not true because the Council did not discuss this issue during its last session. The Council discussed funds raising to support the Democrats’ candidate for president, John Kerry. Bajraktari said a number of high-ranking representatives of former US president Bill Clinton’s administration,...

According to Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti (Evening News), the most influential Albanian drganizer of the event was Richard Holbrooke, while many of his former cohorts from the Clinton days took part: Madeleine Albright, Wesley Clark and James Rubin, as well as local Congressman Eliott Engel, known supporter of Albanian causes. "The purpose of the meeting was to raise funds and secure Albanian-American votes for Democratic presidential candidate [John] Kerry," says the Novosti report, adding that in return, the Democrats promised Albanians the independence of Kosovo. The unnamed Novosti source in New York also claims that Kosovo Albanians sent a low-level...

<p>DETROIT - A gunman accused of shooting a former friend nine times during a church service in an apparent vendetta killing between two Albanian-American families was charged Tuesday with premeditated murder, prosecutors said.</p> <p>Prosecutors say Gjon Pepaj sat through a Mass at St. Paul Albanian Catholic Church with his two children before shooting Gjek Sufaj in the head and back. Pepaj also was to be arraigned on charges of felony firearm and carrying a concealed weapon.</p>