CEE crime/spy and somewhat appalling political news of the week (Aug. 4, 2023)

Yep, it’s a round-up like no other—i.e. read between the lines if you dare.

Albania

The focus on the Albanian mafia continues in Australia, following the mystery death of Troy Kellet, who sold his trucking business for AUD 10 mln only to have died mysteriously among containers close to midnight some 48 hours later. Australian police believe that organized crime and drug traffickers may have been involved, and the press has again turned its attention to Albanian crime figures beating the immigration system to set up shop in Australia.

Now the press and authorities have focused on Tom D., a top businessman who not only appears to be linked to drug trafficking and money laundering, but also to immigration fraud. And he also allegedly has links to top figures in the Australian government.

Tom D.’s group reportedly is from Shkoder in northwest Albania. Not only has it completely defeated Australian immigration, but allegedly the group has built an organized crime network across South Australia, as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald and the Organized Crime and Corruption Network (OCCRP). Interestingly, Tom D. was also declared persona non grata in the US in 2018 for alleged corruption. He has denied all charges.

Yet he has also often hit the press in Albania, having served in Albanian Parliament (even though he also once did time for fighting in a bar while in the military; of possibly politically controlling the province of Shkoder through this family ties, making a fortune in fuel, pharma and real estate and then buying up real estate in Australia. Members of his family have also been accused of violence, which in include the assault of a police officer, as well as having close links to others involved in organized crime in Albania and in Europe. Tom D. has also been accused of physically assaulting a journalist.

The headlines again are relevant in part due to the fact that they have been picked up by the UK press, which has focused for years on Albanian crime and illegal immigration in the UK, but also on a program that pays the Albanian government to take back criminals, with the tab coming of late to GBP 4 mln for 16 serious offenders, including a serial killer of five.

Bulgaria

A knife attack in Bulgaria has prompted protests in 15 cities and questions regarding how the judicial system in that country functions. The perpetrator, Georgi G. (26), attacked Debora M. (18), with the resulting stab wounds can cuts requiring 400 stitches. That said, the judge in the case described the wounds as minor and gave Georgi G. a year’s probation.

Protests took place in Varna, Burga, Plovdiv, Sofia and Stara Zagora, the come of Debora M. Various protests were also scheduled to be held in front of Bulgarian embassies.

Georgi G. has held to the claim that he is innocent.

Czech(ia)

The mayor of Brno, Marketa Vankova, has said she is willing to resign in the wake of a photo that appeared in the media that showed Vankova with lines of white powder that some would claim to be cocaine. While doubters called this a social media frame-up—and although at first Vankova denied the photo entirely—she then made an appearance on Nova TV stating that the photo might be bona-fide after all. She added that it might be old. And that it probably was taken late at night although it appears to have been taken during the day. And it may have happened, following a chance meetings with random young partyers. Will she step down or will this honest, likely imbibing politician (well, maybe) remain in power? Stay tuned.

Mobile phone spyware has long wreaked havoc in Central Europe, and the Czech Republic has not been spared, with the latest attack coming from Spy.SpinOK, which now makes up 20 percent of “infections.” This spyware is of note as it differentiates itself from other spyware in that it attempts to download all information and send it to nasty IT hacker types. It primarily hits Android users.

Hungary

The US has now hit Hungarian travellers with changes to the US Visa Waiver Program… in that for Hungarians it no longer exists. It turns out that possibly one million Hungarian passport holders were never actually ‘verified.” Allegedly, massive passport fraud took place over most of the last decade, which means that when it comes to Hungarian passport security, well, there was none.

A Reuters report quoted a US government official who stated that the end of the waiver program follows “years of failed efforts” to sort out security, and that some passports were gained by “criminals” who could pose a threat to the United States. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban allegedly is at the heart of the matter, as he initiated a simplified system of gaining citizenship, which meant that Romanians, Serbians and Ukrainians could gain passports even with rather dubious connections to the country.

Kosovo

While Kosovo may seem to have gone a bit quiet, don’t let it fool you. The tinder is dry and there are sparks aplenty,, which is why the European Union is pushing for Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti to make good on recent promises and call for new elections. Kurti has moved forward on reducing the ethnic Albanian Kosovo police presence in ethnic-Serb dominated North Kosovo districts, and he has employed a mixed bag of new police officers to replace ethnic Serbs that walked off the police force during the recent crisis.

These have, unfortunately, been met with threats.

Meanwhile, Serbian President Aleksander Vucic has paradoxically called for a stronger KFOR presence in Kosovo to protect local Serbs from threats and harassment.

This is in itself interesting, as is the now bizarre dynamic between the West and various Balkan leaders. The US appears to get along with and support Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama (although not without some reservations), but Rama does not get along with Kosovo’s Kurti, and of late it appears that both the US and the EU have better tolerated Vucic—apart from the fact that the US has sanctioned Vucic’s head of intelligence for alleged corruption, drug trafficking and ties to Russia. Then there is the Bosnian Republika Srpska leader Milorad Dodik, who is currently reviled by the Albanian side and the West, yet tolerated (perhaps only barely) by Vucic, who himself has worked to play a Dodikesque game in Serbia that comes down to addressing his more nationalistic constituents with what they want to hear in Serbian while speaking in different tones to Brussels and US representatives. Not that they are fooled, considering his apparent fondness for EU bad boy and Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, but hey, you can’t make everyone happy all of the time.

Poland

Legendary fraudster, arms dealer and Polish criminal Pierre Konrad D., was arrested in Spain on the basis of an Interpol Red Notice this week. Pierre Konrad D. is now more known as a con man than a true arms trafficker, however, as much of his career appears to have been sealing a deal only to flee with the cash or even worse, attempting to use threats of violence to suck more cash out of middlemen or other victims in the trade. He was arrested first in 2015. This time he was arrested in Ibiza, and it appears that he was sought on a fraud charge of USD 1 mln. Reportedly, he was caught with a diplomatic passport from Guineau Bissau, and investigations are ongoing with regard to a wide range of bank transfers to accounts across Europe and beyond.

If you believe that the flood of drugs to the region has slowed down, think again (and note the Brno story where Yours Truly failed to mention that Czech politicians stated that the political scene there is plagued with cocaine). Another example of drug dealers using legitimate businesses this week when Polish Central Bureau of Investigation officers and prosecutors from the Podkarpackie division of the National Prosecutor's Office busted four people and 1) liquidated a synthetic drugs laboratory 2) secured about 40 liters of 4CMC, 2.5 kg of amphetamine, a revolver, 300 rounds of ammunition, almost 40,000. cigarettes, 42 kg of tobacco, 10 gambling machines and 3) along the way managed to recover two cars previously stolen in Belgium.

But the twist is that once again the amount of narcotics trafficked caused storage problems for the gang so it rented rooms in the back of a Podkarpacie bakery.

Recent busts have seen containers and warehouses of legitimate business used to store cocaine in both Central Europe and Germany.

Romania

Three Romanian nationals were arrested in Belfast, Ireland, Petru B., Flortina C. and Ioan M. on charges of pimping and money laundering in a joint operation that saw Romanian police team up with Irish Anti-human trafficking police. Victims were typically fooled into journeying to Ireland for legitimate jobs but then forced into work at brothels.

The soap opera surrounding controversial influencer Andrew Tate, who was charged in Romania with human trafficking, rape and participation in a criminal gang won an appeal to be released from house arrest from Aug. 4 until Oct. 2. Tate and his brother,  as well as two other defendants were charged by Romania's Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) in a case that will likely be long-running indeed. Tate has repeatedly denied all accusations and said he is looking forward to proving his innocence.

Slovakia

Slovakia’s government continues to bicker with Hungarian officials, this time with Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Miroslav Wlachovsky effectively telling off Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Szijjarto with a “don’t put your words in my mouth” quip after the latter said effectively that the whole EU knows the war in Ukraine will last another four years. Wlachovsky told Szijjarto not to say what others think before… asking them what they think. Fair enough. But even more fair is that Wlachovsky harkened back to Hungarian history and the uprising of 1956 by using the Hungarian "Ruszkik haza! Legyen béke! 1956” mantra, which means: “Russians go home! Let there be peace! 1956.” He could have also added the quote about those who forget history get to relive it. Or some such. But his was pretty good.

Serbia

Serbian press rights—or lack of--again came to the fore with the president of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Maja Server, highlighting accounts of attacks on journalists and how they have no place in a democracy.

The EFJ was incensed primarily because on July 27 during a presentation by Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic at the EU Digital Europe conference, journalists were… locked up in a room in order to prevent them from asking Brnabic or any other Serb official questions.

Which was rather rude no matter what you think about it.

The EFJ’s Sever thought about this a great deal it seems and thus called out the Serbian government telling TV Nova in Serbia that this was “the peak of political arrogance” and that she wanted Brnabic to act “as a responsible person and politician.”

Which is another way to say that yes, it really was quite rude.

On the flip side… the US continues to confuse. One week it sanctions the head of the Serbian secret services, Aleksandar Vulin (although he certainly did not seem bothered by this), but in the next it gave an investment climate review that (considering the Balkans) was almost glowing, stating that “U.S. investors are generally positive about doing business in Serbia due to the country’s strategic location, well-educated and English-speaking labor force, competitive labor costs, generous investment incentives, and free-trade arrangements with the EU and other key markets,” the report summary states. “U.S. investors generally enjoy a level playing field and can take advantage of various programs designed to attract foreign direct investment (FDI).”

Stick and carrot, friends. Stick and carrot.

For those also expecting general war updates, please see the previously posted Ukrainian war update post (which also includes battlefield updates even for non-Patreon users this week) Further on the war this Monday on the vlog!

And have an intriguing weekend!

Photo by Jamie Cderivative work: DL24, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.