Italian report warns of threat by rise of Albanian mafia

December 27, 2005 12:00am
Source: BBC Monitoring International Reports

Italian authorities have warned of the danger of the Albanian mafia in the country, Il Sole 24 Ore has reported. The Intelligence and Democratic Security Service (SISDE) warned that "The induced Islamization in Albania, which occupies the most aggressive and fundamentalist profiles, could move into Italy in the near future..." The Albanians have formed alliances and accords with the mafia, the paper says. Their "presence is elusive, marked by internal solidarity, grid-like in its structure, flexible in its activities, very fast in its movements and capable of gradually capitalizing the criminal profits which it makes", the paper says. They have a leading position in the sex market, control over other illegal immigrants from the Balkans and are protagonists of the drugs market. A report by the Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate (DIA) says that "Albanian criminal groups are asserting themselves as the main points of reference for all the other foreign criminal organizations". US agencies have also been monitoring them in fear of their move to the USA, the paper says. The following is the text of report by Marco Ludovico entitled "The unstoppable rise of the Albanian Mafia", published by Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore on 4 December:
The resumption of robberies in people's villas, which has been seen in the news recently. The collaboration between the FBI and the [Italian] police which, without making a lot of noise, is reaching fever pitch. And a report from the SISDE [Intelligence and Democratic Security Service], which has just been published, which paints a very worrying picture. The common denominator of these events is the Albanian mafia, which is forcing its way onto the daily agenda of the law-enforcement bodies.

Gnosys, the official magazine of the secret service [SISDE] headed by Mario Mori, has written that this is "a priority threat".

At first only in Puglia, the Albanians have gradually formed alliances and accords with the mafia, the Camorra [mafia in Naples and Campania], and the 'Ndrangheta [Calabrian mafia]. Today we can say that they are everywhere, in Liguria, Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia, in the Triveneto area and in Le Marche.

But what is most striking is the way in which it is spreading and expanding: "Dotted here and there, and based on a system of mutual aid," in the words of the SISDE, the Albanian presence is elusive, marked by internal solidarity, grid-like in its structure, flexible in its activities, very fast in its movements, and capable of gradually capitalizing the criminal profits which it makes.

This is shown by its leading position in the sex market in Italy, in which the Albanians not only run the racket in their young female compatriots, but also now have control over other illegal immigrants from the Balkans.

In the exploitation of prostitution, they have to stand against the Nigerians, the other powerful foreign mafia-style association which is present (see the 20 March edition of Il Sole-24 Ore ) - and there has been no shortage of clashes. And while the latter threaten, almost always verbally, to use voodoo rites, the Albanians turn to action, and apply the cruel Kanun code to control the prostitutes. A real system of terror - with ruthless murders, such as the recent murder of a girl who was killed with blows from a hammer - which imposes what is, to all intents and purposes, a regime of slavery.

However, the Albanians, protagonists of the drugs market from and to Italy, along the Balkans route, on the one hand, and from South America, via The Netherlands and Spain, on the other hand, have chosen a specific tactic to consolidate their presence: Stepping up crimes with a low level of criminal violence - drugs, auto theft, or arms trafficking, another sector of major activity, all of which are far more profitable - and proceeding with caution in crimes which have greater social visibility: Robberies at people's villas, of course, but no further than that, to the extent of outsourcing this kind of criminal activity to Moldavians, Bulgarians and Romanians.

Reading the documents from the investigators - with the ROS [Special Operations Section] of the Carabinieri, led by Gen Giampaolo Ganzer, and the SCO [Central Operational Service], a department of the police, which comes under the Anti-Crime directorate, headed up by Prefect Nicola Cavaliere, in the front line - what one is most struck by is its unstoppable ability to expand: avoiding conflict on the ground with the other criminal organizations, at most occupying residual spaces, and, more and more often, creating forms of synergy and alliances: the 'Ndrangheta, for example, gets fresh supplies of weapons from the Albanians.

And that is not all. According to the latest report from the DIA [Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate], which is now led by Gen Cosimo Sasso, "Albanian criminal groups are asserting themselves as the main points of reference for all the other foreign criminal organizations". In other words, we are seeing a series of pacts and agreements between "Mediterranean organized crime groups", one which regulates a large slice of the global trade in drugs, weapons and illegal immigration.

So much so that an (almost) unexpected new development has come along. The Albanians are spreading even beyond the Atlantic, into the United States.
This was recently discovered by the men from the State Police, led by Gianni De Gennaro, and the long-standing collaboration with the FBI has been stepped up because our wealth of knowledge is indispensable for US investigations, while the work of keeping an eye on the organizations present in Italy now serves also to see whether, and how, and to what extent, they intend to spread on US soil.

All this, without forgetting a warning issued by the SISDE in a subdued manner. "The induced Islamization in Albania, which occupies the most aggressive and fundamentalist profiles, could move into Italy in the near future, with more markedly fundamentalist interests." In short: the risk of Islamic terrorism could increase also owing to the Albanians. As yet it is just a theoretical prospect. But Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu is warned.

Source: Il Sole 24 Ore, Milan, in Italian 4 Dec 05

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