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The bosses of the Balkans have conquered the criminal underworld: the Albanian mafia has taken control of the cocaine and heroin trade, establishing new ties with the Colombian clan and strengthening its relations with Turkish groups. And this emerged from a meeting held in Bari a few days ago. The news, confirmed yesterday by the Italian news agency ANSA, reports that at a meeting in the Apulian capital between US police investigators specializing in the fight against drugs and officers of the “Guardia di Finanza,” senior experts discussed the fight against crime in the Balkans. During the meeting, the situation was assessed, focusing in particular on the advances made by the Albanian clan. According to information disclosed at the meeting, a leadership structure has been established, based on four or five Albanian families, who have forged close ties with Colombian drug traffickers to import large quantities of cocaine. This link would be maintained by other Albanian mafia contacts operating in New York. For this very reason, US investigators are particularly interested in the new scenarios of global crime. Investigators have examined the clans’ new strategies and uncovered a map tracking the movements of international criminal networks. According to information disclosed at the meeting, it was emphasized that a large quantity of cocaine had been imported by Albanian bosses from one continent to another, and one of their destinations was Tirana’s Rinas Airport, from where it would be sent to European markets by speedboat across the Strait of Otranto (in the Adriatic) and by barge through the Balkans. The money in circulation is counted in billions and represents one of the main sources of funding for Albanian groups, which are becoming increasingly powerful militarily as well. These clans have also taken control of the heroin trade, providing the Turkish clan with speedboats and boatmen to transport Asian migrants in exchange for heroin, which has become both a key commodity for exchange and the most prized currency among Albanian traffickers. Albanian organized crime is also capable of running the marijuana trade. The drug is produced in Albania in open plantations or in greenhouses lit by large artificial lamps. Albanians made this qualitative leap in the trade some time ago, when the bosses were also experimenting with the possibility of producing “cocaine paste” in Albania. These bosses will now achieve their goal by creating a connecting route thanks to their alliance with drug traffickers, the latter being based in the United States of America.

Black-and-white photograph of ships on the water.