Pubdate: Sat, 04 May 2002
Source: Hindustan Times (India)
Contact:  http://www.hindustantimes.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/910

ALBANIA BECOMES HUB FOR INTERNATIONAL DRUG TRAFFIC

The poorest country in Europe, Albania, has grown into a major transit 
point for the drug traffic between Asia and the west.

Albanian and foreign criminal groups fixed on Albania for its geographical 
position and turned it into a transit country for drugs being shipped to 
western Europe, said former Interior Minister Spartak Poci.

On Monday, the speaker of the Albanian parliament, Namik Dokle, resigned, 
complaining he was being harrassed from one side by "the barons of 
politics" and from the other by "the drug barons."

Dokle was protesting against a Constitutional Court ruling which revoked a 
parliamentary vote dismissing Chief Prosecutor Arben Rakipi for allegedly 
"protecting organised crime."

In 2001, two Albanian traffickers, Arben Berballa and Frederik Durda, who 
were said to have links with the Columbian narcotics cartels, secured the 
contract for computerising the Albanian prosecutor's office.

At the time, newspapers published a photo, taken in Greece, of the two 
accused in the company of the prosecutor's wife.

"Albanian dealers are linked to the international mafia, including Sara 
Corona Unita, Cosa Nostra, but also the Turkish, Russian and Macedonian 
mafia and the Columbian cartels, said Poci, who now heads a parliamentary 
committee supervising the secret police.

Last year, Albanian police destroyed an international cocaine-smuggling 
network shipping the drug to Italy and other western European countries via 
Albania.

Police arrested about 20 traffickers and seized eight tonnes of heroin and 
cocaine. That operation was carried out by the drug squads of seven south 
American countries and several European states, including Italy and Greece.

According to a secret police report recently presented to parliament, the 
traffickers hide their activities behind legal operations, while trying to 
penetrate the administration and political circles.

But the report did not name any politicians who might be implicated in drug 
dealing.

Albanian traffickers have a reputation for violence, not hesitating to kill 
off the members of rival groups so as to win market hegemony, said Fatos 
Klosi, a senior officer in police intelligence.

In recent months, more than 20 people linked to drug trafficking have been 
killed in inter-gang fighting in Albania, according to the police.

The post powerful groups operate in Tirana, Fieri, south of Tirana, Durres 
in the northwest, in Vlora and Korca in the south and in Shkoder, in the north.

"In these cities, drug money is recycled in the building industry and in 
tourism. The authorities lack the means of financial control to stamp out 
the money-laundering", Poci said.
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