Europol says Albanians play key drug trafficking roles

TIRANA, Albania, Oct 27 – Europol, the leading European union police agency, said in the report on the EU organized crime threat assessment 2009 that Albanian criminal groups challenge European organizations in their drug trafficking.
The report published this Monday said that Albania plays a central role in drug trafficking in the Balkans and maintains strong connections with Kosovo and Italy in human trafficking, heroin and marijuana smuggling.
The links between Albania, the Kosovo region and Italy remain strong in trafficking in human beings, heroin, cannabis products and increasingly also cocaine.
The Turkish groups are using Romania and Bulgaria as entry points for heroin into the EU, and are co-operating with ethnic Albanian and Serbian groups who often handle at least certain parts of the final distribution starting from Albania and the Kosovo region and proceeding via Austria into Western Europe.
The report notes an increased involvement of ethnic Albanian groups in the cocaine distribution chain.
Regional distribution in South East Europe seems however still to be in the hands of ethnic Albanian groups, with Albania serving as a pre-gathering and transport centre for the distribution of heroin into the EU.
Albanian organized crime groups tend to exploit victims trafficked by other groups. An indication of this is the increasing association between ethnic Albanian groups and the Balkans and Turkey – which previously have mainly been associated with heroin trafficking – in the cocaine trade.