"Drugs, guns, honor killings", German media: Albanian mafia clans have become the most profitable cocaine businesses in South America

German media tvheute.at shows in detail how the Albanian mafia and drug and arms trafficking networks work.

 Dubbed the world's leading cannabis smugglers, Albanian mafia clans are now tapping into South America's most lucrative cocaine business - with Germany as their target market.

Even in Germany, the Albanian mafia acts with extreme brutality against its enemies.

Albanian gangs are based on strong principles that stem from Albanian traditions, such as honor and revenge between families that inherit revenge from generation to generation.

The German media takes as an example the case of a summer night in 2021 in a Berlin neighborhood where more than 20 shots were fired from a car towards a shisha bar, and as a result some of the victims were seriously injured.

Berlin police are investigating rival Albanian drug gangs that have dominated the capital's drug trade for years. While the Albanian clans have so far been considered the main cannabis dealers in Germany.

After decades of isolation under Hoxha's Stalinist regime, the poorest country in the Balkans, Albania, has only opened up to Europe and a free market society since 1990. But corruption at the highest political levels means that most Albanians they doubt the state apparatus and its laws even to this day. For centuries, they have trusted the unwritten rules of the "Canon", which places the family above everything and is characterized by terms such as "honor" and "blood feud". 

Young people often find their perspective in well-organized criminal gangs, who proudly display the money looted from the international drug trade in villas and luxury cars in their homeland. The phenomenon of organized Albanian mafia clans is also visible in Germany since the 1990s. In the middle of Germany, Albanian "traitors" who oppose the gangs are punished with so-called honor killings. In addition to drug trafficking, in which Albanian families rose from small partners of Italian mobsters to direct importers in South America, arms deals, theft and prostitution are among the main criminal activities of Albanian criminals. 

Të favorizuar nga politika liberale e vizave në Shqipëri, autorët ndryshojnë identitetin e tyre në shtëpi sa herë të duan. Kjo e bën edhe më të vështirë për hetuesit gjermanë kërkimin dhe hetimin. Ligji i heshtjes ndalon gjithsesi çdo bashkëpunim me policinë gjermane nën kërcënimin e vdekjes. Klanet mafioze shqiptare kanë dominuar prej kohësh tregun e drogës në të gjitha qytetet kryesore gjermane, veçanërisht në Berlin dhe Frankfurt. Ata sigurisht bashkëpunojnë me Hells Angels në rrethet përkatëse të dritave të kuqe, si në Hamburg ose Frankfurt.

 Për shkak të komunitetit të fortë shqiptar dhe kosovar në Zvicrën gjermanishtfolëse, trekëndëshi kufitar me Francën në zonën Lörrach/Basel ka qenë një pikë e nxehtë për kontrabandën e drogës dhe armëve për vite me radhë. Përpjekjet e Shqipërisë për t'u anëtarësuar në BE nën kryeministrin Edi Rama deri tani kanë dështuar gjithmonë për shkak të persekutimit jokonsistent të bosëve të drogës në Shqipëri. Kultivimi masiv i kanabisit, veçanërisht në luginat e thella malore të veriut dhe jugut të vendit, i siguron popullatës të ardhura më të mira se puna klasike në terren. Politika shqiptare në Tiranë ka vite që lëviz në këtë zonë tensioni. 

The daily brutality with which the Albanian drug gangs operate in the middle of Germany distinguishes them from the now much more discreet organizations, such as the Italian mafia clans. Having penetrated the global cocaine business, they are now dealing with large sums of money in the billions. To be able to undertake more effective actions against the murderous business of the Albanian mafia in Germany, the investigators would need more human and technical resources.