Albania - Criminal Gangs

Albania's gangs are the envy of gangs all around the world. Whereas in places like Turkey and Russia gangs tend to be in cahoots with the politicos, in Albania much of the time they simply don't bother. There is no government. Well, most of the time. The idea of the government cracking down on them is laughable. Government authority barely goes north of Tirana (or south, for that matter). Local mafias and criminal gangs took over the southern half of Albania in March 1997. And they've stayed put ever since. As for the north . . . well, the less said the better, quite frankly. Certain criminal clans run whole sections of the economy in the form of smuggling cigarettes and coffee.

In 1999 it was the boys in the north of the country who got most of the limelight, robbing anyone they could at gunpoint. Not to be outdone, the Vlora mafia were sending ferryloads of Kosovar refugees to Italy on forged documents for US$1,100 per person. The local police, suffering temporary (or is it permanent?) illiteracy, didn't manage to spot any of the fake documents. Only acidic telephone calls from the Italian Foreign Ministry managed to put a slight stop to such blatant racketeering.