"Haradinaj's clan smuggling arms through Serbia" - daily (B92, Blic, Vesti)
Former KLA commander and former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj "heads one of the most powerful crime clans in Kosovo."
This is according to the Belgrade-based newspaper Blic, which also claims that the crime group "uses a route through Serbia" to smuggle weapons.
According to the article published on Monday "our citizens are paid good money for the criminal activity."
The daily said that the smuggling is taking place "along the Danube (River)."
"In Serbia, the weapons are moved from boats onto trucks used to transport sand, and then go to Kosovo, from where they are shipped and end up in various war zones, and with Islamists."
"Last Friday an illegal shipment of weapons passed through Serbia, smuggled by the war criminal Ramush Haradinaj's clan from Kosovo," the paper said, citing "security services."
According to these claims, the shipment departed by boat from Germany's Bamberg last week and contained 1,200 pieces of automatic rifles, "zbrojovkas", and numerous other light weaponry. The article further said that the weapons were placed in waterproof plastic bags and tied onto the hull of the Ladjar - a river boat.
"It reached the Danube via the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, then went through Slovakia, where more weapons were loaded at Komarno, on the border with Hungary. Then it went through Hungary to reach Croatia and Dalj near Vukovar, which was their next stop," the paper said.
According to Blic, the boat docked in Serbia at Sremska Mitrovica. "The boat was raised, the water drained, and the cargo secured and transferred to a Serbian shipping company's truck, that is used to transport sand. Thus the weapons were moved to Kosovo."
"The organizer of this group is Ramush Haradinaj, the clan is operationally run by his brother Daut Haradinaj, who has been black listed by the U.S. State Department, while U.S. operational data links the Haradinaj brothers with organizing terrorist groups that carried out the attack in Kumanovo (Macedonia)," the daily said, adding, quoting an unnamed source:
"Other key players of this clan are 'Duke' Nikollaj Dukagjini i Lulzim Berisha. It was precisely these two who, along with Daut Haradinaj, stayed in Novi Sad last week where they paid the Serbs who help them and agreed the next delivery. This channel has been functioning for years."
Blic newspapers announced continuation in tomorrow's edition , with the title Who are the Serbs involved in smuggling weapons.