Albanian mafia

The Albanian Mafia is the general term used for various criminal organizations based in Albania. Albanian criminals are significantly active in The United States of America, Italy and the United Kingdom. In Italy, and around the Adriatic generally, Albanian crime syndicates traffic in people, arranging clandestine landings of illegal immigrants on the Italian coast. Arms and drugs are also smuggled into the country and various other spots on the continent. Dangerous but also very lucrative, the practice of human trafficking is especially difficult for Italian authorities to confront [1].

In the U.K., meanwhile, the heroin, vice and false identity trades have a significant Albanian element. After the war in Kosovo, many former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, claiming to be asylum seekers, entered the UK and setup the Albanian mafia among the often poor Albanian minority in London.

Organized crime is also an enormous problem in Albania proper and corruption in the government is endemic.