Path of illegal arms goes from Kosovo to the European countries, as the KLA has the highest concentration of armament that arrived in the Balkans during nineties from the sovereign states, including France as well, Sputnik daily reported today.
A serial of terrorist attacks that stroke France and fact that the arms from the Balkans was used in one of them, made the French President Emmanuel Macron to point his finger first at Serbia, then the Balkans and to seek better control of light weapons in this area.
Still, according to Sputnik, the President Macron has forgotten something.
In Serbia illegal arms trade, comparing to 2003, when 48.000 illegal weapons were handed over during an initiative state undertook, has drastically decreased. In the first trimester of 2015, 7.500 pieces of weapons were handed offer, which lead to unofficial assessment that Serbia at the moment has less than 5.000 illegal weapons possessed by citizens. It is mainly about pistols and hand bombs, while earlier handed over weapons included rocket launchers, automatic rifles, scorpions (type of short automatic rifle) and so on.
Still, one thing is forgotten. Great amounts of armament were sent to the Balkans from the Western European states that supported certain sides in the Balkan wars during the nineties. Also, it should be highlighted that the majority of the illegal arms dealers are Albanians from Kosovo, who also have Serbian citizenship and the most powerful clan that smuggles weapons using river boats travelling through Serbia is the Haradinaj clan.
Milan Mijalkovski, security expert, said co-operation between Serbia and France to prevent illegal arms trade is good, but he does not think that central Serbia is the main arms distributor for potential terrorists in France. He is surprised why Macron brings this issue up after so many years, forgetting the role of France in arms delivery to the Balkans.
“The president Macron should first reconsider French decision to recognize Kosovo, because the main dealers are mainly from that area. They recognized Kosovo and now when the problem of Kosovo is reaching them, they are mentioning Serbia,” Mijalkovski stated.
According to Interpol data, criminal businesses in Kosovo are controlled by 30 Albanian family clans and they are active across Europe, while the annual financial benefit for each of them is around three billion of euros. In addition to arms trade they are also dealing with drug smuggling.
Investigations of the foreign police forces showed that clans are particularly strong in Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Belgium, Scandinavian countries, more precisely in states that have the highest numbers of Albanian migrants from Kosovo. Clan Gashi is the most active in France. This clan has strong connections with criminal groups from Turkey, Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Italy, and through them drugs and arms smuggling is done, Sputnik concluded.
