Albanian mafia look to gain from crackdown on 'ndrangheta

 ROME - The influence of the Albanian mafia in Italy has been growing for many years, but now “there is no region where it is not in a small part present,” according to Vincenzo Musacchio, jurist and researcher on organised crime at the Royal United Services Institute in London, speaking to Il Fatto Quotidiano.

  The production and trafficking of narcotics is the principal business of the Albanian mafia, and having created links with many clans of the Italian mafia, their networks are prevalent throughout the whole of Italy.

  The Albanian mafia have gone in recent years from merely giving logistical assistance to the Italian mafia in their drug trafficking to having at their disposal the resources and means to run drug trafficking networks of their own throughout Italy and Europe, with command over a large group of ‘soldiers’ of many nationalities. 

  Musacchio has said that “Albania’s favourable geographic position offers a direct link with our country… Italian organised crime has established excellent collaborative relationships with Albanian criminals.”

  Cannabis grown in Albania and sold in Italy is worth around 3 billion euros a year, and today 50 per cent of all opiates, cocaine, heroin and morphine seized in Europe is found on this Adriatic route, according to police estimates. 

  The ‘Rinascita Scott’ trials, the largest mafia trials since the 1980s, currently underway in Lamezia Terme, also discovered Albanian drug networks in partnership with the Camorra and ‘ndrangheta running drugs from the port of Bari, Puglia. With many clans of the Calabrese ‘ndrangheta weakened by these huge trials, the Albanian mafia will no doubt see an opportunity to spread themselves further.

  The structure of the Albanian mafia is very similar to that of the ‘ndrangheta. A DIA (Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate) agent, who chose to remain anonymous, said to Il Fatto Quotidiano that “there is a strict discipline, and closure to those outside the family. In the last few years they have developed more modern elements, making deals with politicians. It is very difficult for them to repent.” 

  There are constant wars going on between the various factions in Albania, with fighting spilling into Italy where the clans fight for power over areas of cannabis cultivation and local trafficking networks. An Albanian man was shot and killed last September on the beach in Torvaianica, Lazio by two men thought to be Albanian hitmen.

  The DIA agent described how “the clans of Tirana and Scutari directly manage the Roman drug hotspots, controlling the shipments, and have a privileged dialogue with the clans of Calabria and Campania. Today the power of Carminati, Diabolik and the Spada family is passing to Albanian mafia families.”  

 

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