BIRN: Albanian criminals supply weapons to smuggling gangs from Afghanistan and Morocco

The war of smuggling gangs, primarily from Afghanistan and Morocco, has been causing anxiety among citizens in northern Serbia for a year, and BIRN reveals that their main suppliers of weapons are Albanian criminals from Kosovo, southern Serbia, and Albania, N1 reports.

In the early morning hours of July 2, 2022, the forest near the Subotica settlement of Makova sedmica became the battlefield of conflicting Afghan smuggling gangs.

A burst of automatic weapons whistling through the trees forced the refugees to flee, and during the conflict, one person was killed and seven were wounded, including a 16-year-old girl from Iran, BIRN writes.

"This doesn't happen anywhere else on the Balkan route - only in Serbia is it like this, that smugglers shoot with Kalashnikovs," a smuggler from Syria told BIRN with amazement in February of this year.

His words are not far from the truth. In the past year, there have been dozens of conflicts between armed smuggling gangs that earn millions of euros from the transfer of refugees and migrants to the European Union, the Balkan Research Network reports.

As time goes on, the shootings are getting closer to populated areas. In November last year, in the very center of Horgos, six people were injured in a conflict between Moroccan and Afghan criminals. A video of the conflict, which shows armed men running past the elementary school, has worried the locals. In the last two months alone, in June and July of this year, one person was killed and five were wounded in smuggling clashes.

The Serbian police did not succeed in disarming them completely, and the arsenals of weapons that these groups possessed brought to the fore the question of the origin of the weapons.

BIRN has been monitoring the activities of smuggling gangs in Serbia for more than six months, verifying information and maintaining constant contact with more than ten independent sources, including sources in smuggling groups, security services, informants, and collaborators of the police and Security Intelligence Agency, taxi drivers who are familiar with smuggling, employees in migrant camps and human rights activists.

Based on several hours of interviews, photo, and video material, and secretly recorded conversations obtained from the field, the authenticity of which has been confirmed by several independent sources, it can be concluded that their main suppliers of weapons are Albanian criminal groups that have been operating in Serbia for years.

Evidence obtained by BIRN suggests that one of the suppliers are also twins from Pristina - Amar and Amir Xhemshiti.

BIRN also obtained a photo in which Amir Xhemshiti is in the company of members of the Moroccan smuggling gang 'Tetwani', which operates in Horgos, and in which all the gathered are posing with Kalashnikovs.

In a statement to BIRN, Amir Xhemshiti denies that he and his brother have anything to do with the smuggling of people and weapons in Serbia.

Commenting on the photo with the Moroccan gang, he points out that he crossed illegally from Serbia to the EU like "every other Albanian with many worries and problems" and that the Moroccans caught him on that occasion.

“After they caught me, I gave them money. I saw that they had weapons and I asked them to take a picture together," he told BIRN, adding that he "has no relationship with them."

It seems that some members of the Serbian police are helpless or corrupt to completely disarm the smuggling gangs, BIRN writes.

This is evidenced by the event from May this year.

BIRN sources say that members of the Afghan gang "400/59" filmed themselves on the roof of a border police jeep in the forest near Subotica, uploading those images to social networks.

During that time, border police officers were talking to the leaders in a nearby tent and taking part of their earnings.

"The police came and took the money," one gang member can be heard saying in an audio recording obtained by BIRN, which was secretly made by a source who was present at the conversation.

The police did not respond to BIRN's questions regarding the incident.

BIRN also has recordings of calls and WhatsApp correspondence between Afghan smugglers and a Serbian police intermediary who offered them immunity and continued activities in exchange for handing over weapons. The agreement was never fully realized, and the calculations continued.

"They (smugglers) are smart," one smuggler says, who opposes the use of weapons and adds, "They give the police a few Kalashnikovs, pistols, and they have a lot more. And they can always buy more from the Albanians."

Fatjona Mejdini, director for Southeast Europe at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), confirms to BIRN that her sources also point out that Albanian criminals are among the leading suppliers of weapons.

He points out that the situation is dangerous and that the Serbian authorities should be more efficient in solving it.

"I believe that corruption in the Serbian police makes it easier for smugglers to operate, as well as the acquisition of weapons," Mejdini says.

As he adds, smugglers are fighting for a market that has expanded significantly since 2022 and is growing every day.

"Therefore, the conflict between them intensified, and it could continue to escalate. Weapons naturally go with this type of illegal business," Mejdini said.