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THE Albanian mafia, among Europe's most feared, is consolidating its grip on Kosovo, imposing taxes on lorries, taking over flats and houses, running drugs and targeting the burgeoning and well-financed aid community.
Taking full advantage of Kosovo's open border with Albania, the gangsters have swiftly filled the power vacuum left by Serb police and militia, setting up operations together with local criminals. Albania has long been an incubation house for organised crime. The north is controlled by rival heavily-armed gangs who operate out of village bases.
During the Nato air strikes they prospered by fleecing the huge number of international aid workers, journalists and government officials who moved into the area as Kosovar refugees fled over the border. Once Serb forces pulled out, the streets of Pristina and other large towns teemed with swarthy men in four-by-fours with number plates from Tirana and the gangster towns of Vlorë and Bajram Curri.
The mafia is thought to have made a huge profit taking over Serb flats, using ethnic retribution as a convenient cover. Soaring property prices have multiplied their gains. A good flat in Pristina can now cost £30,000. With most Serb flats now occupied and their contents looted, the organised criminals have begun to target ethnic Albanians and internationals.
Last week two workers for Danish Caritas setting up an office in the western town of Klina were bound and had hoods put over their head by masked gunmen thought to be from Albania. One was beaten in the chest with a rifle butt and a large sum of money was stolen.
The Albanian mafia is perhaps Europe's fastest growing. With both Kosovo and Albania economic deadspots, young men head for the West on false papers to join networks in Switzerland, Germany and Italy. The mafias control many of the people-smuggling routes into Europe, as well as running drugs from Asia.
When war broke out between Nato and Yugoslavia in March, the Kosovo Liberation Army, which had always used Albania as a supply point, poured most of its resources into a cross-border campaign against the Serbs. Links between KLA elements and the Albanian mafia were strengthened, and there are reports that some KLA commanders promised gangsters concessions in a post-war Kosovo in exchange for guns.
A KLA intelligence chief based in Pristina said: "We are criticised for rising crime rates but we cannot decommission, transform and fight the mafia all at the same time."
The woeful inadequacy of the United Nations police force - now responsible for law and order in Pristina and set to take over other parts of the country - is apparent to even the casual observer.
There is no system of fines or other effective deterrence. International and local residents of Pristina alike openly flout traffic laws and there are few identity cards. Plans to open a police academy in Mitrovica where UN staff will train locals are fraught with controversy - last week its official opening was once again postponed.
While the Nato peacekeeping force is generally respected, UN officers are despised for their inefficiency, while their huge salaries, often more than £60,000 tax-free, are a source of widespread envy.
These conditions provide the mafia with easy pickings. Near the Albanian border lorries have been made to pay "fines" to gunmen who melt away as soon as a Nato patrol approaches. Ethnic Albanians looking after Serb flats for their owners have been told to hand them over.
One Kosovo Albanian student commented: "We didn't want to be in Serbia, but we certainly don't want to become part of Albania."