(Introducing longjack for those who don't know him. He's tirelessly translated articles from the German press for us here on FR. I pinged him to this thread to help out with a question and he gallantly replied. Now we need to help him out with his questions. Thanks in advance for your help. And I'm sorry to any I forgot to ping.)
Yes, the problem was already there, longjack. It began in real earnest with the rise of the UCK/KLA in the latter nineties. And one side (Albanian) is mainly responsible for the drug/gun/white slave smuggling. Yes, there are Serbs, Bulgarians, Macedonians, etc. also involved (just as there are Germans, Swiss, Spaniards, Brits, etc. involved on the "delivery" end) but it's not called the "Albanian mafia" for nothing.
There was a really good article in the Times of London about it all back in late 1998/early 1999. I'm using a different computer now and no longer have the link.
About law and order problems with Albanian refugees in Germany. I don't know anyone who worked directly with Albanian refugees from Kosovo in Germany, but I did know a Red Cross official who worked with them in Switzerland (this was '98 and first half of '99). She told me that most of the refugees were themselves non-KLA Albanians (and very nice people) who were much more afraid of the KLA than they were of Serbs. She also said that the KLA mafia goons came around to all the refugees in her area of Switzerland extorting money from their poor little refugee allowances for the "KLA cause" and that the refugees were terrified of these guys.
I occasionally read the German-language Swiss newpapers back in the 90s, and noticed were also a number of articles about KLA mafia crime in them in the late nineties, especially gun-running and drug-dealing. (I once lived in Switzerland.)
Thanks, wonders for the background information.
I do know from reaing the paper from Kaiserslautern in Southwestern, Germany, in the late 90's that there was a UCK criminality problem. The mayor, I think talked about it.
I was reading the paper more to get soccer scores, so I can't give all the details, other than remembering the criminality issues in Kaiserslautern and, I think, Mannheim.
When I was in Germany in the late 70's and the 80's Yugoslavia was a hot vacation spot. I really can't remember Yugoslavia having any where near even a thievery rap, let's say, like Italy had back then.
I'm sure the tourist areas were north of the Kosovo region, but even then, figuring organized crime would radiate toward tourist areas, there weren't any real criminal issues that I can remember.
Was there a point, that you can remember, when there was a turning point (if there was a turning point, that is), when the crime wave really became noticeable, say in the early 90's?
Thanks for the cordial introduction :>)
longjack