A 37-year-old Albanian woman has been arrested in the UK on suspicion of supplying the Albanian mafia with some 500 British passports.
The woman, whose name has been withheld was taken into custody by the National Crime Agency (NCA) on Monday. She was identified as a player in a criminal network that allegedly arranged British citizenship and passports, as well as laundering money for organised crime syndicates.
Andrea Wilson, the Regional Head of Investigations at the NCA stated that “Targeting professional enablers who provide services to organised crime groups is a high priority for the NCA”.
She added that they believe the network the woman is involved with has provided a number of criminals with a way to gain entry to the UK undetected, whilst facilitating the committing of further serious crimes.
The woman was apprehended at an East London address on fraud charges but she has been released pending the outcome of further investigations. It is thought that she countersigned hundreds of UK passport applications as well as working for a ring that was involved in human trafficking, child abuse, kidnapping, drugs, and other forms of criminality.
The investigation and subsequent arrest was the result of a multi-agency sting that included the Immigration Compliance and Enforcement division of the Home Office.
As well as the arrest of this woman, a further nine individuals were taken into custody following raids on ten different businesses across London and the South of England. They were arrested on charges of immigration offences, and six businesses including bars, restaurants and car washes were issued with civil penalty referral notices.
“We will not tolerate criminal gangs who attempt to evade the UK’s immigration controls and allow dangerous foreign offenders to live and work in the UK,” Tony Eastaugh, Director of Crime Enforcement at the Home Office, said.
According to a 2016 report by the Open Society Foundation for Albania, Albanian criminal groups have become more active in international networks over the last 10 years, particularly in terms of tracking cannabis. The so-called Albanian mafia use legitimate businesses both in Albania and abroad, as fronts to disguise the illicit trade in cocaine and other drugs.
Despite these issues being highlighted by numerous international reports, previous Interior Minister Fatmir Xhafaj (whose own brother was sentenced in Italy for drug trafficking) once said that ‘Albania is no longer a producer of marijuana”.
In October 2018, the country signed an agreement with Eurojust to increase judicial cooperation in the fight against mafia groups operating in the Western Balkans. Between January 2015 and September 2018, some 200 cases of fraud, contract killings, drug trafficking and other crimes were recorded and Albania has been involved in a total of 26 international investigations into similar crimes.
A working arrangement was then signed with the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) this week, to step up their work to prevent drug trafficking and drug-related crime.
Organised crime, rampant corruption, and an ineffectual judicial system have posed a significant problem to the country’s desire to join the European Union. As recently as this week, MEPs noted that the rule of law is “backsliding” in the country, following on from the US State Departments concerns that were raised in their annual Human Rights Report.
As a result of allegations of government corruption, vote rigging, and links to organised crime, Opposition MPs resigned their parliamentary mandates and six protests have been held in Tirana over the last month. Tens of thousands of citizens from various political and non-political leanings have marched calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, the installation of a transitional government, and “free and fair” elections to be held as a matter of urgency.
— Alice Elizabeth Taylor
