{"id":1767,"date":"2020-08-29T12:26:30","date_gmt":"2020-08-29T11:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/?page_id=1767"},"modified":"2020-08-29T12:26:30","modified_gmt":"2020-08-29T11:26:30","slug":"kla-finances-war-with-heroin-sale-jerry-seper-washington-times","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.balkan-conflicts-research.com\/archive\/kla-finances-war-with-heroin-sale-jerry-seper-washington-times\/","title":{"rendered":"KLA finances war with heroin sale -Jerry Seper, Washington Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

KLA finances war with heroin sale<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Jerry Seper<\/p>\n

THE WASHINGTON TIMES<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Kosovo Liberation Army, which the Clinton administration has\u00a0embraced and some members of Congress want to arm as part of the NATO\u00a0bombing campaign, is a terrorist organization that has financed much of\u00a0its war effort with profits from the sale of heroin.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Recently obtained intelligence documents show that drug agents in\u00a0five countries, including the United States, believe the KLA has\u00a0aligned itself with an extensive organized crime network centered in\u00a0Albania that smuggles heroin and some cocaine to buyers throughout\u00a0Western Europe and, to a lesser extent, the United States.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>The documents tie members of the Albanian Mafia to a drug\u00a0smuggling cartel based in Kosovo’s provincial capital, Pristina. The\u00a0cartel is manned by ethic Albanians who are members of the Kosovo\u00a0National Front, whose armed wing is the KLA. The documents show it is\u00a0one of the most powerful heroin smuggling organizations in the world,\u00a0with much of its profits being diverted to the KLA to buy weapons.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>The clandestine movement of drugs over a collection of land and\u00a0sea routes from Turkey through Bulgaria, Greece and Yugoslavia to\u00a0Western Europe and elsewhere is so frequent and massive that\u00a0intelligence officials\u00a0have dubbed the circuit the “Balkan Route.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Mr. Clinton has committed air power and is considering the use of\u00a0ground troops to support the Kosovo rebels against Yugoslav President\u00a0Slobodan Milosevic. Last week, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky\u00a0Republican, and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, Connecticut Democrat, called\u00a0on the United States to arm the KLA so ethnic Albanians in Kosovo could\u00a0defend themselves against the Serbs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Mr. McConnell and Mr. Lieberman introduced a bill that would\u00a0provide $25 million to equip 10,000 men or 10 battalions with small\u00a0arms and anti-tank weapons for up to 18 months.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>In 1998, the U.S. State Department listed the KLA — formally\u00a0known as the Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves, or UCK — as an\u00a0international terrorist organization, saying it had bankrolled its\u00a0operations with proceeds from the international heroin trade and from\u00a0loans from known terrorists like Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>“They were terrorists in 1998 and now, because of politics,\u00a0they’re freedom fighters,” said one top drug official who asked not to\u00a0be identified.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, in a recent report, said\u00a0the heroin is smuggled along the Balkan Route in cars, trucks and boats\u00a0initially to Austria, Germany and Italy, where it is routed to eager\u00a0buyers in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain,\u00a0Switzerland and Great Britain. Some of the white powder, the DEA report\u00a0said, finds its way to the United States.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>The DEA report, prepared for the National Narcotics Intelligence\u00a0Consumer’s Committee (NNICC), said a majority of the heroin seized in\u00a0Europe is transported over the Balkan Route. It said drug smuggling\u00a0organizations composed of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians were considered\u00a0“second only to Turkish gangs as the predominant heroin smugglers along\u00a0the Balkan Route.” The NNICC is a coalition of federal agencies\u00a0involved in the war on drugs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>“Kosovo traffickers were noted for their use of violence and for\u00a0their involvement in international weapons trafficking,” the DEA report\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>A separate DEA document, written last month by U.S. drug agents in\u00a0Austria, said that while the war in the former Yugoslavia had reduced\u00a0the drug flow to Western Europe along the Balkan Route, new land routes\u00a0have opened across Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The report\u00a0said, however, the diversion appeared to be only temporary.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>The DEA estimated that between four and six metric tons of heroin\u00a0leaves each month from Turkey bound for Western Europe, the bulk of it\u00a0traveling over the Balkan Route.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>A second high-ranking U.S. drug official, who also requested\u00a0anonymity, said government and police corruption in Kosovo, along with\u00a0widespread poverty throughout the region, had contributed to an\u00a0increase in heroin trafficking by the KLA and other ethnic Albanians.<\/p>\n

The official said drug smuggling is “out of control” and little is\u00a0being done by neighboring states to get a handle on it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>“This is the definition of the wild, wild West,” said the\u00a0official. “The bombing has slowed it down, but has not brought it to a\u00a0halt. And, eventually, it will pick up where it left off.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>The heroin trade along the Balkan Route has been of concern to\u00a0several countries:<\/p>\n

The Greek representative of Interpol reported in 1998 that Kosovo’s\u00a0ethnic Albanians were “the primary sources of supply for cocaine and\u00a0heroin in that country.”<\/p>\n

Intelligence officials in France said in a recent report the KLA was\u00a0among several organizations in southern Europe that had built a vast\u00a0drug-smuggling network. France’s Geopolitical Observatory of Drugs said\u00a0in the report that the KLA was a key player in the rapidly expanding\u00a0drugs-for-arms business and helped transport $2 billion worth of drugs\u00a0annually into Western Europe.<\/p>\n

German drug agents have estimated that $1.5 billion in drug profits is\u00a0laundered annually by Kosovo smugglers, through as many as 200 private\u00a0banks or currency-exchange offices. They noted in a recent report that\u00a0ethnic Albanians had established one of the most prominent drug\u00a0smuggling organizations in Europe.<\/p>\n

Jane’s Intelligence Review estimated in March that drug sales could\u00a0have netted the KLA profits in the “high tens of millions of dollars.”<\/p>\n

The highly regarded British-based journal noted at the time that the\u00a0KLA had rearmed itself for a spring offensive with the aid of drug\u00a0money, along with donations from Albanians in Western Europe and the\u00a0United States.<\/p>\n

Several leading intelligence officials said the KLA has, in part,\u00a0financed its purchase of AK-47s, semiautomatic rifles, shotguns,\u00a0handguns, grenade launchers, ammunition, artillery shells, explosives,\u00a0detonators and anti-personnel mines through drug profits — cash\u00a0laundered through banks in Italy, Germany and Switzerland. They also\u00a0said KLA rebels have paid for weapons using the heroin itself as\u00a0currency.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>The profits, according to the officials, also have been used to\u00a0purchase anti-aircraft and anti-armor rockets, along with electronic\u00a0surveillance equipment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KLA finances war with heroin sale By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES   The Kosovo Liberation Army, which the Clinton administration has\u00a0embraced and some members of Congress want to arm as part of the NATO\u00a0bombing campaign, is a terrorist organization that has financed much of\u00a0its war effort with profits from the sale of heroin. \u00a0\u00a0 … <\/p>\n

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