New criminal alliances
The presence of balkan criminal groups in countries such as Colombia and Ecuador is stated in a report of the United Nations for Organized Crime (Unodc). There it is detailed that they seek to have a presence in cities where large criminal groups have the prison control.
Jorge Machuca, a sociologist, says that knowing where criminal groups work from allows them to have a first contact with suppliers in South America and form alliances. “A cartel from Mexico or Colombia cannot go to Europe without the consent of these mafias,” he adds.
The sociologist says that 2010, the first Albanians arrived in Ecuador. “The State did not activate an intelligence system that monitors it to prevent them from making links and gaining space.” This agrees with the data InSight Crime (a foundation dedicated to the study of the main threat to national and citizen security in Latin America), which details that of the 160 Albanians who entered Ecuador in 2018, “at least 20 could be drug traffickers, according to an anti-narcotics agent, quoted by the foundation
The first known case in the country was that of the Albanian Adriatik Tresa, shot by seven men dressed as policemen, in November 2020, in Guayaquil. The victim was part of an investigation by the Antinarcotics Unit for drug trafficking and was identified as one of the authors of the murder of the journalist Faust Valdivieso.
Los primeros albaneses involucrados en narcotráfico llegaron primero a Colombia hace más de dos décadas
Whats Next?
When the prison massacres began in February 2021, with 79 dead and ended the year with more than 300, more than one person warned that the prison violence would move to the streets.
Machuca says that with the mafias gaining territory we can talk about new crimes. “Just like when people started talking about sicarito, which is now no longer new. Fields can be opened for organ trafficking, sex tourism, which is already being experienced by neighboring countries”, he adds.
For his part, Pazmiño indicates that having a group attracts others, such as Sicilian mafias, Russian (settled in Venezuela) or the triad (Chinese mafia). This, adds Machuca, would create disputes over territories of greater dimension than those caused by the cartels. “They are structures whose leaders have a lot of economic power and camouflage their actions.”
An example, according to research ‘An Albanian drug suspect’s banana bonanza’ in 2009, the Albanian Arbër Çekaj founded a banana export firm in Ecuador, “which he used to hide narcotics on cargo ships.”
That these mafias have been around for almost a decade, says Pazmiño, shows that in Ecuador no in-depth investigation processes have been carried out. “The mafias take advantage of this weakness and continue to increase their work.”
Regarding the actions of the Government, the experts indicate that reform the laws it is rather “criminal populism”, says Machuca. Meanwhile, Pazmiño affirms that it is necessary for all national security systems to respond to a unified command and from there to work on dissuasion from mafias and transnational criminal groups, to common criminals. (AVV)
“The mafias are the mainstay of the criminal ladder. They are not only engaged in one type of criminal activity but several”, Mario Pazmiño, former director of Intelligence of the Ecuadorian Army.
