The Rise of the Albanian Mafia Episode 2: Does the ‘Albanian mafia’ actually exist? And how do they operate across Europe and beyond?
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In the second episode of Intelligence Fusion’s series on Albanian organised crime, we look at how the Albanian mafia spread beyond Albania and the Balkans, and into Europe and the rest of the world.
In the previous episode we touched upon how Albania’s location along key smuggling routes helped accelerate the rise of the Albanian mafia. In this episode we look at how Albanian gangs and organised crime networks have now set themselves up in key strategic locations for different criminal trades in several other countries, too, including some of Europe’s busiest port cities such as Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg.

Albanian gangs in London and the rest of the country now control the vast majority of UK’s cocaine trade, increasingly dominate its cannabis trade, and have a long history of human trafficking, with the recent surge of Albanian migrants crossing the channel in small boats just the latest success in Albanian people smuggling operations across Europe.

In Italy, the Albanian mafia has grown from low-level enforcers for Italian mafia groups to now frequently being equal partners with mafias such as the ‘Ndrangheta, Cosa Nostra, Sacra Corona Unita and more, from the trafficking of drugs into cities such as Rome, to partnering in their transnational criminal operations across multiple countries.

Meanwhile, members of the Albanian mafia have also ventured further afield, with Albanian criminal networks and brokers crossing the Atlantic to set themselves up as key players in the Latin American cocaine trade. Among others, Albanian criminals are now present in cocaine producing countries such as Peru and Colombia, while the presence of the Albanian mafia in Ecuador features heavily in reporting.

But who are the Albanian mafia? And what exactly do we mean when we say ‘Albanian mafia’? We begin the episode by breaking down whether there actually is such a thing as the Albanian mafia - and break down some of the defining characteristics of Albanian organised crime networks, and how this has contributed to their success.

Watch the full episode now.

Chapters:
Intro: 00:00-00:19
Is there an 'Albanian Mafia'?: 00:19-02:26
Defining features of Albanian Organised Crime: 02:26-07:25
Where does the Albanian Mafia operate? Part one: 07:25-08:22
Coming soon: Our in-depth report on Albanian organised crime: 08:22-08:52
Where does the Albanian Mafia operate? Part two: 08:52-16:56
How the Albanian Mafia operates across borders: 16:56-18:27
What are some of their key trades?: 18:27-19:10

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