***** IN BALKANS, ARMS FOR DRUGS By Barry James The International Herald Tribune, Paris, June 6, 1994
Albanian groups in Macedonia and Kosovo province in Serbia are trading heroin for large quantities of weapons for use in a brewing conflict in Kosovo, according to a report to be published monday by a Paris-based narcotics-monitoring group.
In recent months, significant quantities of heroin have been seized in Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Greece from traffickers based in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, as well as the Macedonian capital, Skopje, and the northern Albanian town of Skodra, the report said.
Italian policemen recently dismantled a major Italian-Macedonian connection, seizing 40 kilograms of heroin shipped via the Balkans, it said.
It said Albanian traffickers were supplied with heroin and weapons by Mafia-like groups in Georgia and Armenia. The Albanians then pay for the supplies by reselling the heroin in the west. The report said the Albanian dealers also traded directly with Russian soldiers for weapons in exchange for heroin.
The report was drawn up by the "Observatire Geopolitique Des Drogues", which said it conducted an investigation lasting nearly a year. The organization carries out research on behalf of the European Commission in Brussels, as well as publishing and an annual survey of the narcotics trade....
The report said Albanian mafiosi, who wear expensive suits and who travel ostentatiously in mercedes cars accompanied by bodyguards, have taken over a floor of one of Skopje's best hotels. It said a suspected heroin refinery was in operation near the town of Kumanovo in Macedonia. *****
***** NATIONAL NARCOTICS INTELLIGENCE CONSUMERS COMMITTEE (NNICC) THE NNICC REPORT 1996 The Supply of Illicit Drugs to the United States
The NNICC Report is produced annually for the use of NNICC member agencies and other entities and individuals interested in this subject. Comments and queries are welcome and may be addressed to the: Drug Enforcement Administration ATTN: Intelligence Division Washington, DC 20537 (202) 307-8111
...Heroin was shipped from Turkey primarily to European countries and, to a much smaller extent, the United States. Bulk heroin shipments destined for European markets were transported along a combination of numerous land and sea routes collectively known as the Balkan Route. Smaller quantities destined for the United States were shipped directly, or transshipped through Europe. The Balkan Route encompasses highways running from Turkey through Greece, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, Romania, the Czech and Slovak Republics, and Hungary, to Austria, Germany, and Italy, as well as ferry routes between Greece and Italy. From Italy, heroin shipments were routed to markets elsewhere in Western Europe.
Nigerian heroin smugglers in Italy sought out U.S. servicemen based there to act as couriers bringing heroin from Turkey to Italy or distribution there and elsewhere in Europe. Seventy-five percent of the heroin seized in Europe in recent years, however, was transported by way of the Balkan Route. Significant 1996 seizures of heroin en route from Turkey to Western Europe included 190 kilograms seized in January by Turkish police from a tractor-trailer bound for Germany; 217 kilograms of heroin seized in May by Italian authorities from a truck aboard a passenger ferry that arrived in Venice, Italy, from Izmir; and 65 kilograms seized in June by German customs authorities from a truck that had arrived from Turkey by way of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Austria.
Drug trafficking organizations composed of ethnic Albanians from Serbia's Kosovo Province were considered to be second only to Turkish groups as the predominant heroin smugglers along the Balkan Route. These groups were particularly active in Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), and Serbia. Kosovan traffickers were noted for their use of violence and for their involvement in international weapons trafficking. There is increasing evidence that ethnic criminals from the Balkans are engaged in criminal activities in the United States and some of that activity involves theft of licit pharmaceutical products for illicit street distribution.... *****
***** Jane's Intelligence Review February 1, 1995 SECTION: EUROPE; Vol. 7; No. 2; Pg. 68 The 'Balkan Medellin' BYLINE: Marko Milivojevic
...Previously transported to Western Europe through former Yugoslavia, heroin from Turkey, the Transcaucasus and points further east is now being increasingly routed to Italy via the Black Sea, Albania, Bulgaria and Macedonia. This is a development that has strengthened the Albanian mafia which is now thought to control 70 per cent of the illegal heroin market in Germany and Switzerland. Closely allied to the powerful Sicilian mafia, the Albanian associates have also greatly benefitted from the presence of large numbers of mainly Kosovar Albanians in a number of West European countries; Switzerland alone now has over 100000 ethnic Albanian residents. As well as providing a perfect cover for Albanian criminals, this diaspora is also a useful source of income for racketeers.
Socially organized in extended families bound together in clan alliances, Kosovar Albanians dominate the Albanian mafia in the southern Balkans. Other than Kosovo, the Albanian mafia is also active in northern Albania and western Macedonia....
As for heroin processing locally, the Albanian mafia now reportedly runs at least two secret facilities in Macedonia, which is also the key regional transportation crossroads for the trans-shipment of heroin from Bulgaria to Albania. Heroin shipments are thought to be mostly moved overland by a number of seemingly legitimate international trucking and freight-forwarding companies in Albania, Bulgaria and Macedonia.
High-level corruption, widespread local poverty, a tradition of cross-border smuggling and poor policing throughout the region have all aided the recent rise of the Albanian mafia. In Macedonia, local drug-trafficking is now out of control, a fact which no doubt explains why the Macedonian police have recently turned to Italy for assistance in this area of law enforcement. In this context, the Italian national police mounted a major 10-month joint operation with their Macedonian counterparts in Skopje in 1993-94. Codenamed 'Macedonia', this operation reportedly involved intensive surveillance of known Kosovar Albanian drug-traffickers in the Macedonian capital. Here, a joint Italian-Macedonian police swoop resulted in the seizure of 42 kg of pure heroin in May 1994. In terms of the quantity of heroin now routinely transiting Macedonia, however, the Skopje seizure was insignificant....
...In Albania, the ruling Democratic Party (DP) led by President Sali Berisha is now widely suspected of tacitly tolerating and even directly profiting from drug-trafficking for wider politico-economic reasons, namely the financing of secessionist political parties and other groupings in Kosovo and Macedonia.
In Macedonia, the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP) and other ethnic Albanian political parties, such as the ultra-nationalistic National Democratic Party (NDP), are almost certainly in receipt of laundered Albanian forex profits from narco-terrorism. These have also been reportedly used for the bribing of corrupt Macedonian government officials and police. More generally, Kosovo and western Macedonia are both suspiciously well endowed in forex. This can only realistically have come from criminal enterprises, given the widespread poverty of these two connected areas in the Yugoslav period.
A similar state of affairs exists in nearby Albania, which is not as poor in forex as its government likes to pretend. In all three cases, this criminally generated forex is often disguised as emigree remittances; these totalled over US$500 million in Albania alone in 1993. If Kosovo and Macedonia are included, then total Albanian forex from narco-terrorism going into the southern Balkans in 1993 could have been as high as US$1 billion. Other than buying the Albanian mafia political protection and influence, and a certain spurious popular legitimacy for its alleged patriotism, this laundered drug money is now being increasingly used in an associated activity, namely gun-running among the region's ethnic Albanians.... *****
***** Corriere della Sera (Milan) Janury 19, 1999 CRIMES COMMITTED IN ITALY PROVIDE FUNDS FOR KOSOVO GUERRILLAS By C. B.
Milan -- As long as he was able, until the Milan district Anti-Mafia Directorate and the Carabinieri ROS [Special Operations Group] locked him in a solitary isolation cell, Agim Gashi -- the 35-year-old criminal boss from Pristina, king of the Milan drugs market -- supplied his brothers in Kosovo with Kalashnikov rifles, bazookas, and hand grenades. He controlled the heroin market, and at least part of the billions of lire he made from it was used to buy weapons for the "resistance" movement of the Albanian Kosovo community.
Conversations monitored by ROS, on file with so-called "Operation Africa," contain recollections of his established reign. Gashi spoke in Serbo-Croat with his men and with the Turkish-route heroin suppliers. That is, the language of the Serbian "enemy," of the hated Orthodox religion. The one against which he rallied his Muslim brothers. He is known to have made a telephone call to encourage Turkish heroin suppliers during Ramadan -- a violation of religious rules for the sake of a more important cause: "to submerge Christian infidels in drugs."
With Gashi's arrest, the ethnic Albanian Kosovar clans' rule in Milan has apparently not come to an end. The old 'Ndrangheta families, the Mafia "dozens" ["decine" -- traditional groupings], and the old Egyptian "lords" depend on the new masters of the drug market, acknowledging their authority. In any case, the route is secure. From Turkey, via Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania, it reaches Germany, and from there, Italy. On board trucks or regular cars, it supplies heroin from East to West. On the return trip it has to ensure the invisibility of profits totaling billions of lire. These are needed to buy weapons in Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania for the Kosovo resistance. http://www.rcs.it/corriere *****
***** AP 11-29-98 AP: Report: Bin Laden operated terrorist network based in Albania 5.11 p.m. ET (2212 GMT) November 29, 1998
LONDON (AP) The man accused of orchestrating the U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa operates a terrorist network out of Albania that has infiltrated other parts of Europe, The Sunday Times reported.
The newspaper quoted Fatos Klosi, the head of the Albanian intelligence service, as saying a network run by Saudi exile Osama Bin Laden sent units to fight in the Serbian province of Kosovo.
Bin Laden is believed to have established an Albanian operation in 1994 after telling the government he headed a wealthy Saudi humanitarian agency wanting to help Albania, the newspaper reported.
Klosi said he believed terrorists had already infiltrated other parts of Europe from bases in Albania. Interpol believes more than 100,000 blank Albanian passports were stolen in riots last year, providing ample opportunity for terrorists to acquire false papers, the newspaper said.
Apparent confirmation of Bin Laden's activities came earlier this month during the murder trial of Claude Kader, 27, a French national who said he was a member of Bin Laden's Albanian network, the newspaper ssid.
Kader claimed during the trial he had visited Albania to recruit and arm fighters for Kosovo.
U.S. authorities believe bin Laden, a Saudi exile and militant Muslim, masterminded the bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.
Three alleged co-conspirators are already jailed in New York. *****
***** Romania Libera July 30, 1998 ALBANIAN TERRORISTS OF KLA PAY WEAPON IN HEROIN By Vladimir Alexe
The weapon traffic routes
According to the experts, the region of Kosovo has in the last years become the real stepping stone of the weapon traffic, not only for the Balkans, but also for the entire Europe. Prishtina, Podujevo, Pec and other places are the centre of the international routes' cross-roads used by the traders. The experienced weapon traffickers consider the
Albanians from Kosovo and Metohija as the people with whom big deals can be closed. The first "channel" used by the Albanian weapon traffickers was, as understood, the Yugoslav route, the surplus of weapon from the former Yugoslav republics to be more precise. But the Albanians from Kosovo had soon formed several other secret channels for the weapon traffic, in the direction of Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Denmark.
The Slovenian border crossing "Sentilj" was proclaimed by the weapon traffickers as the "ideal border crossing". Albania provides a special channel for smuggling the weapon into Kosovo, but the traffickers consider it "risky" because of the numerous Serbian Army units stationed at the border between the two countries and the (counter) attack of the snipers or Serbian guns, well camouflaged within the zone. The latest addition to the weapon market is China, practising the "dumping" policy in this field and, for example, offers rifles for just 200 DM at the black market. Turk's Mafia and Albanian's heroin
In principle, the weapon black market in Kosovo is in stable "mobility". So, the traditional "kalashnykov" can be bought at the prices of 700 to 1700 DM (the only acceptable currency). "Papovka" costs 600-800 DM and the revolvers could be bought at 400 to 700 DM. Grenades and mines are 30 DM a piece, almost a symbolic price. In the recent years the European Union recorded the fact that the Turk's Mafia is bringing in weapon galore to Kosovo and Sandzak, through Bulgaria and Skopje (Macedonia).
The interesting matter is that the Albanian terrorists grouped into the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, pay for the weapon not only in German marks but in heroin, as well. In 1994, the European Union seated in Brussels, published a report based upon a study of drug traffic routes in Europe, identifying the well-organised Albanian traffickers from Macedonia and from Kosovo, who paid for the smuggling of weapon in heroin. The weapons provided in this matter were handed over to the Albanian terrorist groups, fighting for the separation of Kosovo from the FR of Yugoslavia. The European Union report stated:" The recent larger quantities of heroin were recorded in Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Greece, and the investigation proved that these quantities come from
the centers like Prishtina (Kosovo), Skopje (Macedonia) and Shkoder (Albania). The Yugoslav army storage of weapons did not go unnoticed by the Albanian traffickers from Kosovo. The Albanians-Moslems broke into the weapon storages in Raska and Novi Pazar, and took out (as in September 1997) automatic guns large quantities of explosives, tens of mortars and thousands of ammunition. Just one of these "breakings in" the quantity of weapon taken was worth about 1000 DM in the black market.
"Those in possession of the Balkans, especially Kosovo and Metohija, control the stability of the entire Europe"
The Albanian terrorism and separatism obscures the geopolitical and the strategic dimension known only by some. In the offices of the Great, the Balkans is considered to have the deciding role of the stability or instability of Europe. Within this context, Kosovo and Macedonia seem to be in possession of keys of stability in the Balkans. The date of origin of the Albanian separatist terrorism is not, as believed, recent. In 1991 in Kosovo and Metohija around 200 Albanian terrorist attacks were registered, against the police officers but against the civilians as well. Since the very beginning, among the terrorists' civilians-victims were the Albanians, too, their only guilt being their respect of law and not supporting the terrorist actions. But all the terrorist actions are not committed by the Albanians from the "Kosovo Liberation Army" and "The National Movement for Kosovo". Both terrorist organisations are positioned in Switzerland and both are considered by the experts as the main sponsors of the terrorist operations in Kosovo and Metohija. The main goal of the Albanian terrorist is not only the separation of the
Kosovo Province from the FR of Yugoslavia, but the "ethnic cleansing" particularly. Ibrahim Rugova himself, seen as a moderate and opponent of the secessionist ideas, says to Spiegel: "Kosovo will belong to those ones who will stay there", and thus discreetly creating, beside terrorism and separatism, a deceitful geopolitical and geostrategical design. It gives the control Kosovo a different dimension: the Province is the "key" of stability in the Balkans, and the Balkans are the "Key" to the stability of the entire Europe (and not only the south east Europe, as perceived).
Those ones in possession of Kosovo and Metohija, control the stability or the instability of Europe. The involvement of all the great powers in the zone (including China) not seems quite justified. To own the "key" to peace or war in the Old Continent is not a small matter. "Phantom Government" of the so-called Kosovo Republic -still unrecognised by any state - has its seat in Ulm near Bonn, in Germany. The leader of this phantom "republic" - Buyar Bukoshi - receives significant "donations", later to be deposited in the Swiss banks or secret safes. Bukoshi himself, with his family, lives in Ulm. Meaning, far away from the bloodshed in Kosovo. Contrary to the leader,
Ibrahim Rugova, who has not left the region and is looking forward to the US State Department support. In 1997, the Carnegie Foundation" invited Rugova to USA and introduced him to the public through mass media in the right way. If Bukoshi is "the Germany man", Rugova is "the American man". In practice, in the background of the bloody scene of Kosovo protagonists, the interests of one or the other great power can be discerned. The region of Kosovo being the geostrategic area of extreme importance to Europe, the "former Kosovo" could be later mentioned in other cases as well in connection with the ethnic separatism in Europe. Renowned cases. ++ END/KRAJ --from "Kosovo.net" *****