About 50 people paid as much as $24,000 to be smuggled from Albania to the United States via Latin America.
TIRANA, May 14 – Albanian authorities say they have arrested 15 people allegedly involved in human trafficking to the United States and the United Kingdom.
The group, mainly based in the Tirana and Shkodra regions, had been charging people up to $24,000 each to take them to Mexico, via Macedonia, Bulgaria, Italy or Spain, and then supplying them with false documentation to enter the United States.
Authorities said that more than 50 people were trafficked to the United States this way, adding investigation is ongoing as more people could have been involved in the network.
The police operation had been months in planning and was done in cooperation with U.S. authorities. At least one member of the group is still at large and wanted by authorities.
Albanian investigators told the local media that members of the criminal group contacted people who were interested to go to the United States and then in cooperation with other organized their illegal trips through different lines of trafficking, mainly Italy-Spain-Mexico-U.S. or Bulgaria-Spain-Costa Rica-Guatemala-Mexico-U.S..
An ethnic Albanian from Macedonia, Nertil Pervizi, had come up with contacts in Bulgaria and Italy and Spain to get people to Mexico and then across the border into the United States, the Voice of America’s Albanian service reported. Pervizi also cooperated with other Macedonian citizens for falsifying passports, mainly Bulgarian, used by the Albanians to move freely within the European Union to transit with a final destination to the United States, the report added.
The investigation authorities told VOA that two of the men arrested, Fatmir Flaga and Alfred Myrtaj, were experts at forging documents such as passports, identity cards, driving license and others.
Authorities also said they had also made efforts to traffic people illegally into Britain as well, without giving much detail.
Albanians have been able to travel to European Union member countries without a visa since 2010. They require a visa for the United States and Great Britain.
The arrests and the large numbers of people smuggled marked the first case of its kind in Albania for trafficking to the United States for large financial gains.
Authorities say they still don’t know the exact number of the people trafficked, but it appears the group was well-organized and investigations are ongoing to completely chart their activities.
Albanian authorities have also been concerned on the increased number of Albanians asking for asylum in some western European countries, that has pushed them to warn Albania and its neighboring western Balkan countries to stop that or visa regime could be reinstalled.
