The Albanian mafia or Albanian organised crime (Albanian: Mafia Shqiptare) are the general terms used for criminal organisations based in Albania or composed of ethnic Albanians. Albanian organised crime is active in Europe, North America, South America, and various other parts of the world including the Middle East and Asia. The Albanian Mafia participates in a diverse range of criminal enterprises including trafficking in drugs, arms, humans, and human organs. The Albanian criminal scenario is characterised by diversified criminal plans which, in their complexity, show one of the highest criminal capacities in the world. In Albania alone, there are over 15 mafia families that control organised crime.
Albanian mafiaFounded1990–presentTerritoryBalkans (Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece), Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, France, United States, Netherlands, Belgium, Israel, China, Sweden, Norway, Finland and other parts of EuropeEthnicityAlbaniansCriminal activitiesArms trafficking, murder, extortion, fencing, robbery, human trafficking, blackmailing, loan sharking, drug trafficking, theft, money laundering, assault, pimping, wildlife smuggling, murder and briberyAlliesSicilian Mafia
Camorra
'Ndrangheta
Sacra Corona Unita
Società foggiana
Greek mafia
British firms
American Mafia.
The Albanian mafia has monopolised various international affiliations from as far east as Israel, to as far west as South America. These reports primarily indicate a strong connection between politicians and various Albanian mafia families. According to the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS), Albanian mafia groups are hybrid organisations (various sectors of society), often involved in both criminal and political activities.
The Albanian mafia, in its entirety, constitutes one of the highest crime generating elements in the world, combining the "traditional" characteristics – plainly manifest in the rigid internal discipline, in the clan structure, in the "endogamic closure" (marrying within the organisation) which increases the impermeability, the reliability and the endogenous (internal) solidity – with modern and innovative elements, such as trans-nationality, commercial imprinting and the criminogenous culture of service. The massive logistics to almost anywhere and the syncretic (diverse) nature of Albanian crime has facilitated its establishment outside the mother country and its integration with the local criminality, exploiting the opportunities inherent in the entire compatriot network.
In the United States, the term "Albanian Mafia" may include or refer specifically to various Albanian-American organised crime groups, such as the Rudaj Organisation or Albanian Boys, both based in New York City. Albanian-American crime groups vary in the extent of their connections to Albanian mafia groups in Albania or Europe, ranging from loosely connected to or mostly independent of Albanian mafias in Europe to being essentially American extensions of European Albanian mafia groups.