Former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) have become prominent figures in London’s underworld of organized crime, the London Daily News writes.
The reason that the names are in Serbian is probably because this article was originally written in Serbian, it cited the article written in the UK and was then translated into English and the names were left as they were in the Serbian article.
Though this article may be less than credible, it is really just repeating what we all already know. It is beyond denial that most of the worlds heroin is grown in Afghanistan and distributed through Kosovo.
When you deny something that is obvious to everyone else you just end up just looking foolish.
One only has to look at the crime rate in Kosovo and Serbia. Kosovo has a lower crime rate even though is 3-4 times poorer than Serbia, and is still in the process of consolidating its institutions. I am not talking about the crimes based on ethnic conflicts.
How often do you hear or see about people murdered in Prishtina or elsewhere in Kosovo from the mafia or anyone else, or even for other disputes or conflicts? How often do you see and hear about women being raped, or taken as prostitutes? The drug trafficing incidents are also higher in Serbia as well as in Montenegro than in Kosovo.
Kosovo itslef has one of the lowest crime rates in the Balkans, read the statistics.
Serbs have my sympathy, and maybe it's all truth, but that source of information - London Daily News - can hardly be trusted. By that newspaper, at the time, the Serbian insurgents during the Bosnia war were worse than the Nazi SS.
Stephen, it is one thing reporting and highlighting the issues of the K Albanian mafia in the UK. It is quite another thing to identify an isolated disgusting sex crime by an individual and attempt attribute that to an ethnic group.
blero of course there are rotten apples in each society, you don't need to persuade me on that. OUR job must be to expose / inform / criticise these people to make their job more difficult.
My point isn't that these men are glorified (although anybody who was in the KLA may be venerated as you know) but that they are not mentioned by Albanians. I do not accuse you of trying to clear them of wrongdoing.
Really I can't comment too much about the messenger (ie spellings) rather than the substance, which for me is the real issue. And I believe you when you say you have not heard of these guys dealings in the UK. However, you must concede that it is perfectly feasable or even logical that such a story is at least partially true. Gangsters need export markets and I'd be very, very surprised if some of these men did not have people on the ground as well as those they 'deliver' through.
But I'm perfectly willing to accept that tabloid reports can be deliberately alarmist and prone to exaggeration.
But the fact remains that unlike many countries where there is information in the public domain there is something of a code of silence on the Albanian mafia (for want of a better word). In Serbia for example its pretty much known who are the main crooks, who they are connected to etc.
For example the formerly all powerful Zemun clan, their main members and Legija motoring around Belgrade in his jeep post 2000 was a topic of discussion (or disgust) in cafes in Serbia and on the internet.
Conversely if I didn't have contacts I would not have a clue who the Albanian crooks are and I'm pretty sure that even if I could speak Albanian I would not be able to find reference to these guys. For example I remember one of our Albanian contributors here making a cryptic reference to a local kingpin mafioso in Kosovo, using some kind of nickname (cant remember who did that). In the Serbian context the only guy who is familiar to the public is Ekrem, because of his connection with Karic and actually I think that most internationals know this guy is a crook only because of translated Serbian reports.
Thats an argument in itself from an Albanian perspective for outing more information about these men. If international journalists / intelligence are going through Serbia / Serbs for information on Albanian organised crime, that is because Albanians are not willing to talk. And of course it means that Serbs are free to add some spice to the stories - although with the reputation of some of these men, spice is not necessary.
What I find harmful in this article is the way it was written: it does much more bad for Serbia than good.
1) The corrupt politicians in UK do know, but not care about Albanian mafia.
2) Ordinary citizens do read the story and think: "Jesus, these Balkans surely are the hotbed of all horrible things. Any tourist visiting is probably raped and ethnically cleansed after it". The entire image of SE Europe suffers.
Instead of painting gloomy picture, the truth is just the opposite. Eastern/SE Europe is SAFER than the West.
I would rather see a serious investigation into organ-harvesting and the dealings in Hague, which is closer to London than Tirana. Because without serious "help" from certain "Western" governments, there wouldn't be a reason to write this article after all. It's a self-induced problem.
well, I woudn´t make such a noise about that... it´s a simple and widely known fact, no matter whether it is printed ( or at least released ) in serbian or british media - a fact, nothing more and nothing less.
furthermore I think it is not really of importance whether the names of those criminals are spelled in the albanian or slavic way - the fact remains the same.
very likely the the names come from serbian investigators who work closely toghether with british police and other officials and even non-officials when it comes to albanian crimes.
so, they very likely just took over the names without "translating" them in the specific albanian fashion.
but, hey, what are you so upset about, my dear albanian friends?
how about asking David Beckham about his experiences with albanian crime and criminals?
he would have something to tell you, if you had the opportunity to ask him...
No law enforcement officlai in the EU or New York City is surprised at the contents of this article.On the contrary, have you people noticed that the 22 EU countries which have recognized the UDI are the ones with the biggest Albanian criminal scourge in their respective societies?Having a place to deport hundreds of thousands of Albanian criminals and illegal aliens is obviously more beneficial to these countries than upholding international law and not recognizing the separatist UDI.No sane politician in the EU would invite Ceku or Thaci to his personal residence for dinner especially not if he has women or children in the house.
So what is the news ? Is there someone who had never heard of it or anti-Serbs solidarity is no longer the price they are going to pay for all these “drugs, weapons, stolen automobiles, white slavery, cigarettes and alcohol “ ?
In Russia we have Gypsies which catastrophically avoid any legal business. In the West they are ripping the harvest they had sawn. This why even Serb haters here has never dared to say a good word for the Albanians. Am I mistaken ? Then let an Anglo-Sax or someone from the West raise a voice for them
Well this is no surprise. They should realise that in order for a society to prosper, you need good engineers and scientists. This is perhaps one of the reasons they still can't run a power plant in present day Kosovo. You can not run a society based on criminal activity and handouts.
I have posted here ages ago before, that as far as prostitution and human trafficking in London is concerned, Albanians control 70%.
This was an ACADEMIC source which came from my Criminology and Sociology major.
This is a well known fact. Another source which is not acadmic, but CAN confirm these claims is Amnesty International who deals with protecting women who are trafficked to London and forced into prostitution.
UK and the rest have gotten what they asked for. Now their children will have to deal with their mistakes. And Lord, are there many of them.
By Fatos Berisha:
I must confess it's been a long time since I have last read such a blatantly libelous article. It is a false and malicious publication printed not for exposing some real and present danger but for the purpose of defaming Albanians in the UK and elsewhere. Without wanting to deconstruct every fallacy and misrepresentation within the article – otherwise I'd be here forever! - I would like to point out two things, which might give your readers a better idea about the objectivity of this piece. Firstly, by using a sentence such as "the bloody Balkans conflict against Serbia" the article attempts to intimate that somehow Serbia was the aggrieved party in that conflict, when we all know that the opposite is true in all cases, in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. And secondly, the names of the allegedly “influential Albanian families” are all full names, not family names, and crucially they are shown in Serbian and not their original Albanian spelling. This begs the question, is your source/journalist/paymaster by any chance Serbian? In closing, whether you strive to be a sensationalist or a serious news portal, sub-standard articles such as the above-mentioned one will quickly ensure that you will fail in both those pursuits.
There are rotten apples in each society.
Unfortunately for our liking we (Albanians) have them as well (it looks more than we can digest).
And we 9the average Joes) have to live with the fact that there are members of our nation that are involved in actions that hurt us more than anybody else.
Anybody that is in one shape or form involved in any illegal activity should face justice.
None of these so called “Albanians” are glorified. They are shunted as the scum of the earth (which they are).
BGanon, the actions of these give the right to MikeC to put comments that are insulting to any human being (Cannot belive that B92 actually gave it a green light to his comment – Tank you B92) .
So not BGanon, we are not trying to clear them of any wrongdoings.
Now BGanon, I have lived in UK until mid 2007 and at no point did I hear about such activity (not that I needed any services as such – however the bad news travels fast).
The other point that needs to be raised is how genuine the article is.
An article where the author uses names spelled in different language points to a biased writing (or a biased writer).
Now we don’t know the author however if we would have his name it would shed some light on some “facts” in the article.
In addition, when in few sentences the author tried to cover such a broad spectre of these activities and services also raises the question about the article substance.
Finally (again not trying to justify something that cannot be justified), in a nation with such a large number of its citizens living abroad there is always the risk of some being lured and accepting the shortcuts of getting rich. It was the case with Italian mafia, Colombian mafia and Cuban mafia in US.
It is the case with the gun culture in UK with Black community and unfortunately it is the case with Albanians.
We are the ones that have to live with the facts that there are “Albanians” there that do not qualify to be classified as human.
I am sure that Serbia has its own share of people that fail that criteria also.
Look, the Albanian mafia is nothing new, as it's been active in Europe and the US for at least a decade. It's where all of these champions of Kosovar democracy got their start, and it continues to function as the primary source of income for Pristina. It's not as if the Albanian drug trafficking syncidate suddenly sprouted up overnight in the last year. If anything, it's only strengthened now that my country has given it a semi-legal base of operations, but if Western Europe is suddenly waking up to this now, I'd say it's about time they pull their heads out of the ground and question why the MSM in their respective countries hasn't been reporting on this earlier. I know some bristle at the comparison between Kosovo and Afghanistan, but the criminal and institutional parallels are all too close.
blero surely the important issue is whether the allegations are true or not rather than the spelling.
The activities of the Kelmendi clan (drugs, arms, racket, prostitution) are well documented in international intelligence / diplomatic circles (eg in the German BND report). Ekrem and Riza Lluka are also well known.
Selimi was connected to the GECI group and was suspended from being Head of KPC academy on account his involvement with organised crime.
You know in a way I don't understand why more Albanians don't talk about these guys openly. On one level of course you don't want to give ammunition to Serbs who will say Albanians are criminals, but on the other what about YOUR society? Don't you want a modern society based on merit and not on which family you were born into, or your political connections? I know if I was Albanian I would want this system to change.
There is always the fear factor in somehow being caught revealing what these people get up to, but still.
Perhaps Albanian society is even more close knit than I can imagine and every bit of criticism could be reported back and the critic located.
Weather the article is written in English or any other language one does not need to understand it to know that Albanians have a tradition of being involved in the most hanious of crimes around the world. It is not a coincidense however that Serbs and other nations have a conflict with such people. I do not wish to generalise as I believe most Albanians are law abiding but there is a disturbing percentage which clearly are not.
Much of this has directly to do with why there is conflict between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija.
The Pink Panthers are incomparable to this type of gangster and make for entertaining reading.
PRN is right. The pink panthers were pretty good jewel thieves - imaginative to say the least, like painting the only bench outside a jewellers on the french riviera so there would be no witnesses to their heist. they just nicked the jewels and jumped into a waiting speed boat and sped off.
"The war in Kosovo fuelled the spread of the Albanian Mafia after numerous gangsters disguised as Kosovo "refugees" found their way into European countries."
So this is how the albanians thank their "saviours". By providing their children with tons of drugs and using them for prostitution. To the brits, germans, americans etc I say: You got what you deserve!
International jewelerly thieves are associated with glamour (thus the Pink Panther name) so any nation associated with such crime does not suffer the stigma associated with other forms of organised crime like drugs.
have a look at the book LA TORRE DEI CRANI, regarding the organised crime in kosovo and the world....written by an senior italian police officer, deployed two years and half in kosovo...dealing with organised crime, mafia, terrorisme and so on......
“Most influential Albanian families at the moment are Naser Keljmendi, Ekrem Luka, and Redzep Selimi”.
Now, can somebody see a small discrepancy in that sentence?
I’ll give you a hint:
The gangster interviewed “was” Albanian (the article says therefore “must” be true).
Now look at the names listed above…. And then look at their names below:
##
(Albanian) (???????)
Kelmendi (Keljmendi)
Lluka (Luka)
Rexhep (Redzep).
##
Now, tell me please in which language are the names in brackets (as they are posted in the article)?
Any takers!!!
Really this isn't news, but yes in New York they are the biggest mafia.
If only the public in germany, britain and america knew what their governments are doing.... supporting the theft of KiM while these criminals sell drugs to their kids.
Amazing!! nor have I ever heard of The London Daily paper but I can only blame myself for this.
But boy what an article amazinf piece of jurnalism there and welldone to the albanian mafia guy giving the interview he sounds positive on his investments in london.. lol.
is this what serbs have to be put up with from their press? jeez
This is why England recognized Kosovo. they are hoping that if the albanians have another country that they will just leave england and cause their problems in Kosovo instead of London.
Really this isn't news, but yes in New York they are the biggest mafia.
If only the public in germany, britain and america knew what their governments are doing.... supporting the theft of KiM while these criminals sell drugs to their kids.
"The war in Kosovo fuelled the spread of the Albanian Mafia after numerous gangsters disguised as Kosovo "refugees" found their way into European countries."
So this is how the albanians thank their "saviours". By providing their children with tons of drugs and using them for prostitution. To the brits, germans, americans etc I say: You got what you deserve!
have a look at the book LA TORRE DEI CRANI, regarding the organised crime in kosovo and the world....written by an senior italian police officer, deployed two years and half in kosovo...dealing with organised crime, mafia, terrorisme and so on......
This is why England recognized Kosovo. they are hoping that if the albanians have another country that they will just leave england and cause their problems in Kosovo instead of London.
Look, the Albanian mafia is nothing new, as it's been active in Europe and the US for at least a decade. It's where all of these champions of Kosovar democracy got their start, and it continues to function as the primary source of income for Pristina. It's not as if the Albanian drug trafficking syncidate suddenly sprouted up overnight in the last year. If anything, it's only strengthened now that my country has given it a semi-legal base of operations, but if Western Europe is suddenly waking up to this now, I'd say it's about time they pull their heads out of the ground and question why the MSM in their respective countries hasn't been reporting on this earlier. I know some bristle at the comparison between Kosovo and Afghanistan, but the criminal and institutional parallels are all too close.
Weather the article is written in English or any other language one does not need to understand it to know that Albanians have a tradition of being involved in the most hanious of crimes around the world. It is not a coincidense however that Serbs and other nations have a conflict with such people. I do not wish to generalise as I believe most Albanians are law abiding but there is a disturbing percentage which clearly are not.
Much of this has directly to do with why there is conflict between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija.
The Pink Panthers are incomparable to this type of gangster and make for entertaining reading.
blero surely the important issue is whether the allegations are true or not rather than the spelling.
The activities of the Kelmendi clan (drugs, arms, racket, prostitution) are well documented in international intelligence / diplomatic circles (eg in the German BND report). Ekrem and Riza Lluka are also well known.
Selimi was connected to the GECI group and was suspended from being Head of KPC academy on account his involvement with organised crime.
You know in a way I don't understand why more Albanians don't talk about these guys openly. On one level of course you don't want to give ammunition to Serbs who will say Albanians are criminals, but on the other what about YOUR society? Don't you want a modern society based on merit and not on which family you were born into, or your political connections? I know if I was Albanian I would want this system to change.
There is always the fear factor in somehow being caught revealing what these people get up to, but still.
Perhaps Albanian society is even more close knit than I can imagine and every bit of criticism could be reported back and the critic located.
International jewelerly thieves are associated with glamour (thus the Pink Panther name) so any nation associated with such crime does not suffer the stigma associated with other forms of organised crime like drugs.
So what is the news ? Is there someone who had never heard of it or anti-Serbs solidarity is no longer the price they are going to pay for all these “drugs, weapons, stolen automobiles, white slavery, cigarettes and alcohol “ ?
In Russia we have Gypsies which catastrophically avoid any legal business. In the West they are ripping the harvest they had sawn. This why even Serb haters here has never dared to say a good word for the Albanians. Am I mistaken ? Then let an Anglo-Sax or someone from the West raise a voice for them
I have posted here ages ago before, that as far as prostitution and human trafficking in London is concerned, Albanians control 70%.
This was an ACADEMIC source which came from my Criminology and Sociology major.
This is a well known fact. Another source which is not acadmic, but CAN confirm these claims is Amnesty International who deals with protecting women who are trafficked to London and forced into prostitution.
UK and the rest have gotten what they asked for. Now their children will have to deal with their mistakes. And Lord, are there many of them.
PRN is right. The pink panthers were pretty good jewel thieves - imaginative to say the least, like painting the only bench outside a jewellers on the french riviera so there would be no witnesses to their heist. they just nicked the jewels and jumped into a waiting speed boat and sped off.
No law enforcement officlai in the EU or New York City is surprised at the contents of this article.On the contrary, have you people noticed that the 22 EU countries which have recognized the UDI are the ones with the biggest Albanian criminal scourge in their respective societies?Having a place to deport hundreds of thousands of Albanian criminals and illegal aliens is obviously more beneficial to these countries than upholding international law and not recognizing the separatist UDI.No sane politician in the EU would invite Ceku or Thaci to his personal residence for dinner especially not if he has women or children in the house.
There are rotten apples in each society.
Unfortunately for our liking we (Albanians) have them as well (it looks more than we can digest).
And we 9the average Joes) have to live with the fact that there are members of our nation that are involved in actions that hurt us more than anybody else.
Anybody that is in one shape or form involved in any illegal activity should face justice.
None of these so called “Albanians” are glorified. They are shunted as the scum of the earth (which they are).
BGanon, the actions of these give the right to MikeC to put comments that are insulting to any human being (Cannot belive that B92 actually gave it a green light to his comment – Tank you B92) .
So not BGanon, we are not trying to clear them of any wrongdoings.
Now BGanon, I have lived in UK until mid 2007 and at no point did I hear about such activity (not that I needed any services as such – however the bad news travels fast).
The other point that needs to be raised is how genuine the article is.
An article where the author uses names spelled in different language points to a biased writing (or a biased writer).
Now we don’t know the author however if we would have his name it would shed some light on some “facts” in the article.
In addition, when in few sentences the author tried to cover such a broad spectre of these activities and services also raises the question about the article substance.
Finally (again not trying to justify something that cannot be justified), in a nation with such a large number of its citizens living abroad there is always the risk of some being lured and accepting the shortcuts of getting rich. It was the case with Italian mafia, Colombian mafia and Cuban mafia in US.
It is the case with the gun culture in UK with Black community and unfortunately it is the case with Albanians.
We are the ones that have to live with the facts that there are “Albanians” there that do not qualify to be classified as human.
I am sure that Serbia has its own share of people that fail that criteria also.
“Most influential Albanian families at the moment are Naser Keljmendi, Ekrem Luka, and Redzep Selimi”.
Now, can somebody see a small discrepancy in that sentence?
I’ll give you a hint:
The gangster interviewed “was” Albanian (the article says therefore “must” be true).
Now look at the names listed above…. And then look at their names below:
##
(Albanian) (???????)
Kelmendi (Keljmendi)
Lluka (Luka)
Rexhep (Redzep).
##
Now, tell me please in which language are the names in brackets (as they are posted in the article)?
Any takers!!!
well, I woudn´t make such a noise about that... it´s a simple and widely known fact, no matter whether it is printed ( or at least released ) in serbian or british media - a fact, nothing more and nothing less.
furthermore I think it is not really of importance whether the names of those criminals are spelled in the albanian or slavic way - the fact remains the same.
very likely the the names come from serbian investigators who work closely toghether with british police and other officials and even non-officials when it comes to albanian crimes.
so, they very likely just took over the names without "translating" them in the specific albanian fashion.
but, hey, what are you so upset about, my dear albanian friends?
how about asking David Beckham about his experiences with albanian crime and criminals?
he would have something to tell you, if you had the opportunity to ask him...
Well this is no surprise. They should realise that in order for a society to prosper, you need good engineers and scientists. This is perhaps one of the reasons they still can't run a power plant in present day Kosovo. You can not run a society based on criminal activity and handouts.
By Fatos Berisha:
I must confess it's been a long time since I have last read such a blatantly libelous article. It is a false and malicious publication printed not for exposing some real and present danger but for the purpose of defaming Albanians in the UK and elsewhere. Without wanting to deconstruct every fallacy and misrepresentation within the article – otherwise I'd be here forever! - I would like to point out two things, which might give your readers a better idea about the objectivity of this piece. Firstly, by using a sentence such as "the bloody Balkans conflict against Serbia" the article attempts to intimate that somehow Serbia was the aggrieved party in that conflict, when we all know that the opposite is true in all cases, in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. And secondly, the names of the allegedly “influential Albanian families” are all full names, not family names, and crucially they are shown in Serbian and not their original Albanian spelling. This begs the question, is your source/journalist/paymaster by any chance Serbian? In closing, whether you strive to be a sensationalist or a serious news portal, sub-standard articles such as the above-mentioned one will quickly ensure that you will fail in both those pursuits.
Amazing!! nor have I ever heard of The London Daily paper but I can only blame myself for this.
But boy what an article amazinf piece of jurnalism there and welldone to the albanian mafia guy giving the interview he sounds positive on his investments in london.. lol.
is this what serbs have to be put up with from their press? jeez
What I find harmful in this article is the way it was written: it does much more bad for Serbia than good.
1) The corrupt politicians in UK do know, but not care about Albanian mafia.
2) Ordinary citizens do read the story and think: "Jesus, these Balkans surely are the hotbed of all horrible things. Any tourist visiting is probably raped and ethnically cleansed after it". The entire image of SE Europe suffers.
Instead of painting gloomy picture, the truth is just the opposite. Eastern/SE Europe is SAFER than the West.
I would rather see a serious investigation into organ-harvesting and the dealings in Hague, which is closer to London than Tirana. Because without serious "help" from certain "Western" governments, there wouldn't be a reason to write this article after all. It's a self-induced problem.
blero of course there are rotten apples in each society, you don't need to persuade me on that. OUR job must be to expose / inform / criticise these people to make their job more difficult.
My point isn't that these men are glorified (although anybody who was in the KLA may be venerated as you know) but that they are not mentioned by Albanians. I do not accuse you of trying to clear them of wrongdoing.
Really I can't comment too much about the messenger (ie spellings) rather than the substance, which for me is the real issue. And I believe you when you say you have not heard of these guys dealings in the UK. However, you must concede that it is perfectly feasable or even logical that such a story is at least partially true. Gangsters need export markets and I'd be very, very surprised if some of these men did not have people on the ground as well as those they 'deliver' through.
But I'm perfectly willing to accept that tabloid reports can be deliberately alarmist and prone to exaggeration.
But the fact remains that unlike many countries where there is information in the public domain there is something of a code of silence on the Albanian mafia (for want of a better word). In Serbia for example its pretty much known who are the main crooks, who they are connected to etc.
For example the formerly all powerful Zemun clan, their main members and Legija motoring around Belgrade in his jeep post 2000 was a topic of discussion (or disgust) in cafes in Serbia and on the internet.
Conversely if I didn't have contacts I would not have a clue who the Albanian crooks are and I'm pretty sure that even if I could speak Albanian I would not be able to find reference to these guys. For example I remember one of our Albanian contributors here making a cryptic reference to a local kingpin mafioso in Kosovo, using some kind of nickname (cant remember who did that). In the Serbian context the only guy who is familiar to the public is Ekrem, because of his connection with Karic and actually I think that most internationals know this guy is a crook only because of translated Serbian reports.
Thats an argument in itself from an Albanian perspective for outing more information about these men. If international journalists / intelligence are going through Serbia / Serbs for information on Albanian organised crime, that is because Albanians are not willing to talk. And of course it means that Serbs are free to add some spice to the stories - although with the reputation of some of these men, spice is not necessary.
The reason that the names are in Serbian is probably because this article was originally written in Serbian, it cited the article written in the UK and was then translated into English and the names were left as they were in the Serbian article.
Though this article may be less than credible, it is really just repeating what we all already know. It is beyond denial that most of the worlds heroin is grown in Afghanistan and distributed through Kosovo.
When you deny something that is obvious to everyone else you just end up just looking foolish.
Stephen, it is one thing reporting and highlighting the issues of the K Albanian mafia in the UK. It is quite another thing to identify an isolated disgusting sex crime by an individual and attempt attribute that to an ethnic group.
One only has to look at the crime rate in Kosovo and Serbia. Kosovo has a lower crime rate even though is 3-4 times poorer than Serbia, and is still in the process of consolidating its institutions. I am not talking about the crimes based on ethnic conflicts.
How often do you hear or see about people murdered in Prishtina or elsewhere in Kosovo from the mafia or anyone else, or even for other disputes or conflicts? How often do you see and hear about women being raped, or taken as prostitutes? The drug trafficing incidents are also higher in Serbia as well as in Montenegro than in Kosovo.
Kosovo itslef has one of the lowest crime rates in the Balkans, read the statistics.
Serbs have my sympathy, and maybe it's all truth, but that source of information - London Daily News - can hardly be trusted. By that newspaper, at the time, the Serbian insurgents during the Bosnia war were worse than the Nazi SS.
“Most influential Albanian families at the moment are Naser Keljmendi, Ekrem Luka, and Redzep Selimi”.
Now, can somebody see a small discrepancy in that sentence?
I’ll give you a hint:
The gangster interviewed “was” Albanian (the article says therefore “must” be true).
Now look at the names listed above…. And then look at their names below:
##
(Albanian) (???????)
Kelmendi (Keljmendi)
Lluka (Luka)
Rexhep (Redzep).
##
Now, tell me please in which language are the names in brackets (as they are posted in the article)?
Any takers!!!
Amazing!! nor have I ever heard of The London Daily paper but I can only blame myself for this.
But boy what an article amazinf piece of jurnalism there and welldone to the albanian mafia guy giving the interview he sounds positive on his investments in london.. lol.
is this what serbs have to be put up with from their press? jeez
By Fatos Berisha:
I must confess it's been a long time since I have last read such a blatantly libelous article. It is a false and malicious publication printed not for exposing some real and present danger but for the purpose of defaming Albanians in the UK and elsewhere. Without wanting to deconstruct every fallacy and misrepresentation within the article – otherwise I'd be here forever! - I would like to point out two things, which might give your readers a better idea about the objectivity of this piece. Firstly, by using a sentence such as "the bloody Balkans conflict against Serbia" the article attempts to intimate that somehow Serbia was the aggrieved party in that conflict, when we all know that the opposite is true in all cases, in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. And secondly, the names of the allegedly “influential Albanian families” are all full names, not family names, and crucially they are shown in Serbian and not their original Albanian spelling. This begs the question, is your source/journalist/paymaster by any chance Serbian? In closing, whether you strive to be a sensationalist or a serious news portal, sub-standard articles such as the above-mentioned one will quickly ensure that you will fail in both those pursuits.
There are rotten apples in each society.
Unfortunately for our liking we (Albanians) have them as well (it looks more than we can digest).
And we 9the average Joes) have to live with the fact that there are members of our nation that are involved in actions that hurt us more than anybody else.
Anybody that is in one shape or form involved in any illegal activity should face justice.
None of these so called “Albanians” are glorified. They are shunted as the scum of the earth (which they are).
BGanon, the actions of these give the right to MikeC to put comments that are insulting to any human being (Cannot belive that B92 actually gave it a green light to his comment – Tank you B92) .
So not BGanon, we are not trying to clear them of any wrongdoings.
Now BGanon, I have lived in UK until mid 2007 and at no point did I hear about such activity (not that I needed any services as such – however the bad news travels fast).
The other point that needs to be raised is how genuine the article is.
An article where the author uses names spelled in different language points to a biased writing (or a biased writer).
Now we don’t know the author however if we would have his name it would shed some light on some “facts” in the article.
In addition, when in few sentences the author tried to cover such a broad spectre of these activities and services also raises the question about the article substance.
Finally (again not trying to justify something that cannot be justified), in a nation with such a large number of its citizens living abroad there is always the risk of some being lured and accepting the shortcuts of getting rich. It was the case with Italian mafia, Colombian mafia and Cuban mafia in US.
It is the case with the gun culture in UK with Black community and unfortunately it is the case with Albanians.
We are the ones that have to live with the facts that there are “Albanians” there that do not qualify to be classified as human.
I am sure that Serbia has its own share of people that fail that criteria also.
This is why England recognized Kosovo. they are hoping that if the albanians have another country that they will just leave england and cause their problems in Kosovo instead of London.
Really this isn't news, but yes in New York they are the biggest mafia.
If only the public in germany, britain and america knew what their governments are doing.... supporting the theft of KiM while these criminals sell drugs to their kids.
Weather the article is written in English or any other language one does not need to understand it to know that Albanians have a tradition of being involved in the most hanious of crimes around the world. It is not a coincidense however that Serbs and other nations have a conflict with such people. I do not wish to generalise as I believe most Albanians are law abiding but there is a disturbing percentage which clearly are not.
Much of this has directly to do with why there is conflict between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija.
The Pink Panthers are incomparable to this type of gangster and make for entertaining reading.
"The war in Kosovo fuelled the spread of the Albanian Mafia after numerous gangsters disguised as Kosovo "refugees" found their way into European countries."
So this is how the albanians thank their "saviours". By providing their children with tons of drugs and using them for prostitution. To the brits, germans, americans etc I say: You got what you deserve!
Look, the Albanian mafia is nothing new, as it's been active in Europe and the US for at least a decade. It's where all of these champions of Kosovar democracy got their start, and it continues to function as the primary source of income for Pristina. It's not as if the Albanian drug trafficking syncidate suddenly sprouted up overnight in the last year. If anything, it's only strengthened now that my country has given it a semi-legal base of operations, but if Western Europe is suddenly waking up to this now, I'd say it's about time they pull their heads out of the ground and question why the MSM in their respective countries hasn't been reporting on this earlier. I know some bristle at the comparison between Kosovo and Afghanistan, but the criminal and institutional parallels are all too close.
Well this is no surprise. They should realise that in order for a society to prosper, you need good engineers and scientists. This is perhaps one of the reasons they still can't run a power plant in present day Kosovo. You can not run a society based on criminal activity and handouts.
blero surely the important issue is whether the allegations are true or not rather than the spelling.
The activities of the Kelmendi clan (drugs, arms, racket, prostitution) are well documented in international intelligence / diplomatic circles (eg in the German BND report). Ekrem and Riza Lluka are also well known.
Selimi was connected to the GECI group and was suspended from being Head of KPC academy on account his involvement with organised crime.
You know in a way I don't understand why more Albanians don't talk about these guys openly. On one level of course you don't want to give ammunition to Serbs who will say Albanians are criminals, but on the other what about YOUR society? Don't you want a modern society based on merit and not on which family you were born into, or your political connections? I know if I was Albanian I would want this system to change.
There is always the fear factor in somehow being caught revealing what these people get up to, but still.
Perhaps Albanian society is even more close knit than I can imagine and every bit of criticism could be reported back and the critic located.
International jewelerly thieves are associated with glamour (thus the Pink Panther name) so any nation associated with such crime does not suffer the stigma associated with other forms of organised crime like drugs.
So what is the news ? Is there someone who had never heard of it or anti-Serbs solidarity is no longer the price they are going to pay for all these “drugs, weapons, stolen automobiles, white slavery, cigarettes and alcohol “ ?
In Russia we have Gypsies which catastrophically avoid any legal business. In the West they are ripping the harvest they had sawn. This why even Serb haters here has never dared to say a good word for the Albanians. Am I mistaken ? Then let an Anglo-Sax or someone from the West raise a voice for them
I have posted here ages ago before, that as far as prostitution and human trafficking in London is concerned, Albanians control 70%.
This was an ACADEMIC source which came from my Criminology and Sociology major.
This is a well known fact. Another source which is not acadmic, but CAN confirm these claims is Amnesty International who deals with protecting women who are trafficked to London and forced into prostitution.
UK and the rest have gotten what they asked for. Now their children will have to deal with their mistakes. And Lord, are there many of them.
have a look at the book LA TORRE DEI CRANI, regarding the organised crime in kosovo and the world....written by an senior italian police officer, deployed two years and half in kosovo...dealing with organised crime, mafia, terrorisme and so on......
No law enforcement officlai in the EU or New York City is surprised at the contents of this article.On the contrary, have you people noticed that the 22 EU countries which have recognized the UDI are the ones with the biggest Albanian criminal scourge in their respective societies?Having a place to deport hundreds of thousands of Albanian criminals and illegal aliens is obviously more beneficial to these countries than upholding international law and not recognizing the separatist UDI.No sane politician in the EU would invite Ceku or Thaci to his personal residence for dinner especially not if he has women or children in the house.
PRN is right. The pink panthers were pretty good jewel thieves - imaginative to say the least, like painting the only bench outside a jewellers on the french riviera so there would be no witnesses to their heist. they just nicked the jewels and jumped into a waiting speed boat and sped off.
Stephen, it is one thing reporting and highlighting the issues of the K Albanian mafia in the UK. It is quite another thing to identify an isolated disgusting sex crime by an individual and attempt attribute that to an ethnic group.
One only has to look at the crime rate in Kosovo and Serbia. Kosovo has a lower crime rate even though is 3-4 times poorer than Serbia, and is still in the process of consolidating its institutions. I am not talking about the crimes based on ethnic conflicts.
How often do you hear or see about people murdered in Prishtina or elsewhere in Kosovo from the mafia or anyone else, or even for other disputes or conflicts? How often do you see and hear about women being raped, or taken as prostitutes? The drug trafficing incidents are also higher in Serbia as well as in Montenegro than in Kosovo.
Kosovo itslef has one of the lowest crime rates in the Balkans, read the statistics.
well, I woudn´t make such a noise about that... it´s a simple and widely known fact, no matter whether it is printed ( or at least released ) in serbian or british media - a fact, nothing more and nothing less.
furthermore I think it is not really of importance whether the names of those criminals are spelled in the albanian or slavic way - the fact remains the same.
very likely the the names come from serbian investigators who work closely toghether with british police and other officials and even non-officials when it comes to albanian crimes.
so, they very likely just took over the names without "translating" them in the specific albanian fashion.
but, hey, what are you so upset about, my dear albanian friends?
how about asking David Beckham about his experiences with albanian crime and criminals?
he would have something to tell you, if you had the opportunity to ask him...
What I find harmful in this article is the way it was written: it does much more bad for Serbia than good.
1) The corrupt politicians in UK do know, but not care about Albanian mafia.
2) Ordinary citizens do read the story and think: "Jesus, these Balkans surely are the hotbed of all horrible things. Any tourist visiting is probably raped and ethnically cleansed after it". The entire image of SE Europe suffers.
Instead of painting gloomy picture, the truth is just the opposite. Eastern/SE Europe is SAFER than the West.
I would rather see a serious investigation into organ-harvesting and the dealings in Hague, which is closer to London than Tirana. Because without serious "help" from certain "Western" governments, there wouldn't be a reason to write this article after all. It's a self-induced problem.
Serbs have my sympathy, and maybe it's all truth, but that source of information - London Daily News - can hardly be trusted. By that newspaper, at the time, the Serbian insurgents during the Bosnia war were worse than the Nazi SS.
blero of course there are rotten apples in each society, you don't need to persuade me on that. OUR job must be to expose / inform / criticise these people to make their job more difficult.
My point isn't that these men are glorified (although anybody who was in the KLA may be venerated as you know) but that they are not mentioned by Albanians. I do not accuse you of trying to clear them of wrongdoing.
Really I can't comment too much about the messenger (ie spellings) rather than the substance, which for me is the real issue. And I believe you when you say you have not heard of these guys dealings in the UK. However, you must concede that it is perfectly feasable or even logical that such a story is at least partially true. Gangsters need export markets and I'd be very, very surprised if some of these men did not have people on the ground as well as those they 'deliver' through.
But I'm perfectly willing to accept that tabloid reports can be deliberately alarmist and prone to exaggeration.
But the fact remains that unlike many countries where there is information in the public domain there is something of a code of silence on the Albanian mafia (for want of a better word). In Serbia for example its pretty much known who are the main crooks, who they are connected to etc.
For example the formerly all powerful Zemun clan, their main members and Legija motoring around Belgrade in his jeep post 2000 was a topic of discussion (or disgust) in cafes in Serbia and on the internet.
Conversely if I didn't have contacts I would not have a clue who the Albanian crooks are and I'm pretty sure that even if I could speak Albanian I would not be able to find reference to these guys. For example I remember one of our Albanian contributors here making a cryptic reference to a local kingpin mafioso in Kosovo, using some kind of nickname (cant remember who did that). In the Serbian context the only guy who is familiar to the public is Ekrem, because of his connection with Karic and actually I think that most internationals know this guy is a crook only because of translated Serbian reports.
Thats an argument in itself from an Albanian perspective for outing more information about these men. If international journalists / intelligence are going through Serbia / Serbs for information on Albanian organised crime, that is because Albanians are not willing to talk. And of course it means that Serbs are free to add some spice to the stories - although with the reputation of some of these men, spice is not necessary.
The reason that the names are in Serbian is probably because this article was originally written in Serbian, it cited the article written in the UK and was then translated into English and the names were left as they were in the Serbian article.
Though this article may be less than credible, it is really just repeating what we all already know. It is beyond denial that most of the worlds heroin is grown in Afghanistan and distributed through Kosovo.
When you deny something that is obvious to everyone else you just end up just looking foolish.
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