Albania extradites Kosovar man to US

TIRANA, Jan. 6 – Albanian police extradited to the United States a Kosovar man accused of illegal human trafficking. Hektor Kelmendi, alias Deme Nikqi, 53, is wanted by a New York court on charges of assisting people to enter the United States illegally. Kelmendi was arrested in April as he crossed into Albania from Kosovo, based on an international arrest warrant. Authorities said that Kelmendi was extradited Friday early morning. Kelmendi is considered in the United States as a reputed mastermind of a migrant smuggling ring that allegedly smuggled hundreds of undocumented immigrants from Eastern Europe into the U.S.. He was arraigned on Saturday in federal court in Brooklyn after his extradition from Albania. A 34-page federal indictment depicts Deme Nikqi, 53, as the leader of an international criminal network dedicated to smuggling ethnic Albanians from the Balkans into the U.S. across the Mexican and Canadian borders using fraudulent passports and visas. His arrest was the result of a joint investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Nikqi pleaded not guilty to all 28 felony counts. In court documents, Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said the alleged smuggling network exploited undocumented immigrants and exposed them to danger. According to Lynch, Nikqi charged Kosovars more than $15,000 for illegal transport to the U.S., including the production of fraudulent passports and visas. Lynch added that Nikqi’s alleged smuggling network not only placed migrants at risk, but represented a “grave threat to our nation’s borders.” “Transnational smuggling organizations such as those headed by Deme Nikqi are rightly viewed as a threat to national security, and will be vigorously prosecuted,” she said. Judge Viktor V. Pohorelsky, of U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, on Saturday ordered Nikqi detained until trial.