Switzerland: Kosovo Albanian gangs dominate heroin trade
Ethnic Albanian criminal gangs continue to pose a serious security threat, dominating the transit and supply of heroin to Switzerland, warns a Swiss federal police expert
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Friday, August 29, 2008
Three members of the same Kosovo family are currently on trial in Switzerland accused of operating one of Europe's largest heroin wholesale operations.
"[The clan] has been one of the principle suppliers of heroin in western Europe since the middle of the 90s," the prosecution claimed. The defendants deny all charges.
They went on trial in Switzerland because the brothers lived and worked there. A verdict by the Federal Penal Court in Bellinzona is expected at the end of October.
According to Roger Flury, an illegal drugs expert at the Federal Police Office, the seizure was very significant, even though it was split between different countries.
"1,500 kg - that's between 25 to 50 percent of what people consume in Switzerland in one year," he told swissinfo.
In its 2007 internal security report published in July the federal police said that "criminal organizations from southeastern Europe" played a "significant role" in Switzerland.
These internationally interlinked groups were involved in numerous criminal activities including drug and human trafficking, migrant smuggling, extortion, prostitution and money laundering, it stated.
According to the Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Switzerland has historically been singled out as one of the countries most affected by ethnic Albanian heroin trafficking, due to the large expatriate population.
There were an estimated 94,000 Albanian-speakers in Switzerland in 2000. In the late 1990s, Albanians were blamed for trafficking some 70 to 90 percent of Switzerland's heroin supply into the country.
"The influence of ethnic Albanian criminal groups is still very strong, especially in the heroin market, and it's not abating," said Flury. "The vast majority of heroin sold in Switzerland still transits via ethnic Albanian groups."
Ethnic Albanian criminal gangs built up a reputation as effective traffickers as they were violent and clannish with a language nobody else could understand and had an honor code similar to the Sicilian mafia, explained Theodore Leggett, a UN expert.
"But I don't think this makes for a very competitive drug trafficking group in the long term, as violence attracts unwanted attention. What tends to happen with these Albanian crime groups is that they build up to a certain level, then they shoot each other over an honor issue, which undermines their place in the market," he said.
