There is a new power in international drug trafficking.
If you’ve bought cocaine in europe any time in the last five years chances are it’s passed through an albanian organized crime group i got shot here 20 times i’m alive plenty of my friends they dead over the past decade albanian crime groups have overtaken all rivals to become some of the most crucial players in global drug trafficking this is how criminal
Networks from a tiny european country have revolutionized the international cocaine business europeans love coke in fact in 2021 reports emerged that the european cocaine market had surpassed the us in value for the first time everybody this decade long explosion in european coke habits has largely been supplied by a relatively new type of trafficker the
Highly successful organized crime groups drawn from albanian communities all over the continent we’re like dragged into it by some albanians that’s how i got into it first really there’s always our baby games about there’s a 24 7 service you call about any time of the day they’ll come drop you just give them the dress it’s not mcdonald’s but for drugs albania is
A small country with a population of under 3 million for decades it was ruled by a brutal authoritarian communist regime which is actually part of the reason it’s now become so prominent in international organized crime we tended to see that many of the former communist security sectors were made redundant by the state so they either tended to go into kind of
These more informal organizations and networks or they kind of went into private security provision which then very easily also become kind of transposed into illicit activities and informal activities throughout the 1990s and early 2000s albania suffered a series of wars and financial crises which not only flooded the country with weapons but caused thousands
Of refugees to flee to the rest of europe and north america many of these were youngsters they had family connections back in albania which they maintained and recognizing that it was important for them to maintain those family connections in order to grow as as a criminal organization albanian criminal groups have been heavily involved in drug trafficking
For decades largely working with turkish networks supplying heroin on the route from afghanistan into europe then in the 1990s albania exploded as a hub for european cannabis production over the years this once poor desolate village became a european marijuana bazaar absolute mountains of disgust traffickers dealt directly with farmers bigger farmers became
Bigger players organized crime moved in but what’s really set the albanian organized crime groups apart is how since around the mid 2000s they’ve revolutionized the cocaine trade traditionally the different parts of the cocaine business were kept separate south american cartels would sell to international traffickers who would smuggle the drug around the world
But would usually sell it onto local criminal groups to distribute on the streets the albanians took control of the entire chain they went out to south america formed their own contacts with the cartels and organized transportation back to their own suppliers in europe who would distribute the drugs for maximum profit so are there albanian criminal members in
Colombia who the clan deals with the albanian supply model has been so successful and the only way that they would make more money was if they were able to go to the source of the drug so instead of purchasing these drugs from other drug dealers they decided that let’s let’s move and let’s gain those connections with south america and and then shift these drugs
In they completely um took over the whole drug spread in terms of cocaine there’d been a series of high-profile killings and arrests of albanian traffickers stretching from ecuador to new york to the netherlands albanians now make up by far the largest percentage of foreign-born inmates in british prisons and the eu crime agency’s biggest ever operation was
Specifically targeted at the albanian organized crime group compania bello inevitably this has led to some myths and misconceptions about how these groups operate the first is that there’s some kind of single shadowy organization operating as the albanian mafia the reality is that rather than being kind of these very hierarchically organized tightly disciplined
Structures that we saw for example with the italian mafia organization what we have instead is more kind of regional based clan based family based networks the other great myth about the albanian organized crime groups is that they are uniquely violent and brutal if you cross them they’re going to use violence which is nothing taken away not to be returned again
They’ll just make it disappear there’s no doubt that albanian drug traffickers use extreme violence but every drug trafficking organization uses violence in an illegal marketplace this is pretty much the only way to enforce contracts and intimidate rivals but the idea that albanian criminal groups are uniquely violent in ways that other traffickers aren’t really
Just feeds into familiar cycles of misinformation that go back decades in the war on drugs the way that the operations of these groups is presented is that the the success as it were of specific trafficking organization of criminal groups is is determined by their proclivities to violence in the case of the albanians what we’re seeing is instead of this ability
For violence it’s more the capacity for entrepreneurship a willingness of mobility and capacity to move around globally of course some albanian criminals are often happy for people to think they are ultra violent killers which can lead to groups like the hellbanians in the uk who literally advertise their trigger happy narco bling lifestyles but the real power
In albanian drug trafficking isn’t held by street level gangs like the albanians but by sophisticated tightly controlled trade networks that stretch over continents because in reality the albanian traffickers haven’t achieved power primarily through starting wars with other criminal groups but through forming business relationships with them god bless albania we
Keep good relationship otherwise there is no hawk because from colombia the big boss sometimes come to albania from here we go montenegro serbia bosnia when the albanian crime groups do inflict violence it’s very often to maintain internal discipline rather than fighting other groups over territory this is helped by the fact that wherever in the world they
Operate their workers can be controlled through threats of violence against their families back in albania theater and of course as so often in the war on drugs the ability to buy and sell politicians and cops is as important as the ability to buy and sell cocaine or heroin what most empowers the albanian organized crime groups is that they’re deeply woven
Into the country’s ruling class former minister of the interior simir tahiri received a three-year sentence for abuse of power the court found he had inexplicable links to a distant cousin convicted of trafficking 3.8 tons of drugs to italy i think what’s problematic for albania is that they’ve actually tried very very hard um to be a good and compliant partner um
Because eu membership accession to the eu has been you know the real push for the albanian for successive albanian governments illegal drug trafficking is ultimately just a business and the albanian organized crime groups have taken over the industry not by being sociopathic monsters but simply by being more efficient and innovative business people than anyone else
And by killing a fair few people along the way who do you buy it from i have an albanian friend that i go to albanian yes what’s different about him compared to other dealers oh so much more efficient and as long as these drugs remain illegal it is these types of business people who will continue to thrive and make billions we’d like to congratulate drugs for winning the war on drugs
Transcribed from video
Europe's New Cocaine Kings | The War on Drugs By VICE
