ALBANIA

ALBANIA

1997 – During Albanian unrest 100,000 passports were stolen. Interpol said they may be used to smuggle members of Islamist groups into Europe. Weak states with low law enforcement are ideal grounds for smuggling.

1998 – Albania’s role in the Balkans, when Osama bin Laden and Iranian revolutionary guards signed a deal to use Albania and Kosovo for armed attacks in Europe.  Iranian involvement in Albania dates back to 1997. Robbery, terrorism, drug smuggling, kidnapping. Sex slavery and trafficking were sources of income. Mohsen Nurbakan governor of the Iranian central bank told domestic banks to invest in Albania. Iranian banks were a source of hard currency in Albania.

1998-99 – Defendants in the 1999 trial in Cairo against the Islamic Jihad, Egyptian terror group, provided insights into the Arab Afghan network in Albania. Most of them were employed by Islamic charities in Tirana. Shawki Salama Mustafa was the Egyptian who headed al-Qaeda’s Albanian cell. He ran a racket in Tirana forging identities, passports and birth certificates, which he learned in 1994 in Sudan. Forgery business. Ahmed Ibrahim al-Sayed al-Naggar, the Jihad member tied to bin Laden in Albania, smuggling arms and drugs into Europe. They established business ventures with the Italian mafia, which took responsibility for sale and distribution of drugs. Albania became a transhipment point in the drug route from Afghanistan to Europe.

20 November 2001 – CIA backed team used brutal means to break up terrorist cells in Albania. Andrew Higgins and Christopher Cooper. Wall Street Journal.