Kosovo Arrests Six On Organised Crime Charges

Kosovo police have arrested six people suspected of involvement in “high-profile” organised crime, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

All suspects were Kosovo Albanians from the wider Mitrovica region, and were arrested for alleged involvement in racketeering, money laundering, and smuggling of fuel and other goods into Kosovo.

Police spokesman Veton Elshani told Balkan Insight that the arrest was a result of “investigations that lasted for several months” and “these are only the first wave of arrests” in authorities’ efforts to fight the smuggling that is booming in northern Kosovo.

The lawyers of the suspects were not available for comment. Police sources said that two of the arrested were among ‘high-profile wanted people’ and that they are known smugglers in the Mitrovica region.

Kosovo’s Serb-populated north, which backs into Serbia proper, has been teetering near legal and political limbo since Kosovo’s Albanian majority declared independence from Belgrade last February.

With local Serbs rejecting the secession and authorities in Pristina and Belgrade vying with the United Nations and European Union missions to establish moral and practical authority on the ground, border patrols and policing have been hampered by inter-ethnic squabbling, creating an ideal environment for smugglers and organised crime gangs.