Raped, beaten, sold - a child's view of Albanian gangs' vice grip on Britain
Me falni qe artikulli eshte ne anglisht por ma do mendja se shumica juaj dine te lexojne anglishten.
Artikulli eshte i gazetes The Guardian botuar dje.
Raped, beaten, sold - a child's view of Albanian gangs' vice grip on Britain
Scotland Yard fearful at spread of violent crime across Europe into UK cities
Nick Hopkins, crime correspondent
Monday December 23, 2002
The Guardian
Anna was 16 when she ran away from her pimp and was rescued from the streets by Scotland Yard's clubs and vice unit. To officers the treatment she received from Mustapha Kadiu was shocking, but it had a familiar ring; he threatened her at knifepoint and said he was going to kill her whenever she failed to earn between £400 and £500 a day (she charged £30 for straight sex). Rather than hitting her - as bruising would make her less attractive to potential clients - he punished her by raping her repeatedly.
Kadiu, an Albanian, ordered Anna (not her real name) to offer her customers unprotected anal sex to earn the money he required, but she told detectives she felt sick at the thought. Abusive as this was, officers discovered it was only part of a desperately sad story.
In protective custody where Anna finally felt safe, she started to reveal details of her past. This led officers out of London to Romania, where she was born and grew up. When she was 12 a relative sold her for £600 to criminals in the former Yugoslavia who forced her into vice. Her journey from there to north London illustrates the slave trade of children from east to west Europe for prostitution.
It also underlines the menace of a small number of Albanian criminals who have established themselves here over the past 10 years.
Bullying their way into the underworld, they have carved out a niche in the sex industry. Their signature is the willingness to use extreme violence, even by the standards of an exploitative and rough trade.
Kadiu, who had only been in the UK for five years, brought Anna to London in July 2001, when she was 15. By that stage Anna had already been sold on twice. Weeks after leaving Romania she was taken to the capital of Macedonia, Skopje, where she was forced to work in a strip club and have sex with customers. A few months later another gang bought her for £2,300. She was taken to Albania and then by boat to Naples, where she was again forced to work as a prostitute.
How Kadiu discovered her is not clear. But he decided he wanted her and had her kidnapped and taken to Rome, where he persuaded her that she should move with him to the UK to start a new life "off the game".
Corruption
He gave her a false passport and paid for a trip which took her via Brussels and Ostend to Harwich, Essex, and then by train to Victoria station in London. Kadiu travelled independently to ensure that if Anna was stopped he would not be caught with her.
He took Anna to his house in Harlesden, where he lived with his cousin, Edmond Ethemi, and a 22-year-old woman who was Ethemi's girlfriend; she was also a prostitute.
Kadiu's promise that Anna would not have to work in vice lasted for four weeks, and then he coerced her back into the business at saunas in Tottenham, Kings Cross, Camden, West Hampstead and Chalk Farm.
"Kadiu would drop her off in the morning and pick her up in the evening, up to 12 hours later, " said Superintendent Chris Bradford, head of the clubs and vice squad, based at Charing Cross police station. "She worked seven days a week, and if she didn't bring in the money, he would give her hell. Kadiu could make as much money from pimping one girl as he could from drug dealing."
Leaving Kadiu was by no means an easy option. "He'd told her that if she went to the police, we would hand her straight back to him," said Supt Bradford. "She had been in countries where the police are corrupt and she knew nothing of Britain.
"She didn't have any documents or any money. And she knew that if Kadiu caught her, he would knock her around."
Despite the risks, Anna plucked up the courage to leave and a source tipped off the squad that a girl was "in difficulty and needed help".
Officers found her before Kadiu could and took her to a safehouse.
"She was traumatised," said Supt Bradford. "From what she told us, she had been abused by one guy after another from the age of 12."
As Anna gave statements to the police, Supt Bradford ordered surveillance on Kadiu and Ethemi which ended with their arrest on December 3 last year.
When officers raided their house they found £30,000 wrapped in newspaper and hidden in a fireplace behind a dressing table and 24 grams of cocaine.
During his trial at Southwark crown court Kadiu claimed Anna willingly went into prostitution and denied harming her. After hearing Anna's evidence the jury decided he was lying.
He was convicted of raping her and indecently assaulting her, and of living off immoral earnings. He was sentenced in December to a total of 10 years in prison.
Ethemi, 21, was jailed for six and a half years for living off immoral earnings and possessing cocaine.
Anna is still in the UK and is rebuilding her life. "She is going to college and trying to put everything behind her," said Supt Bradford. But he has to assume there are other girls out there in her predicament, and that Albanian criminals may be controlling them.
"Ten years ago, we'd hardly even heard of Albania," he said. Although most of the Albanians living in London are law abiding, small cadres that have come here in recent years are causing the Met almost as much concern as the established Turkish and Kurdish networks that control the heroin supply into the capital.
The national criminal intelligence service (NCIS) warned three years ago of Albanian organised crime gangs drifting across western Europe, after evidence suggested they had established footholds in Germany, Switzerland, Greece and Italy.
NCIS said the power of the groups could be gauged by the fact they had taken control of the criminal underworld in Milan after a two-year power struggle with local mafias.
There is already some evidence to suggest that Albanian criminals have set up in Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff, and their presence has been reported in Lancaster and Telford.
While the current threat is still relatively small, "the potential for growth remains high", according to NCIS.
"Albanian gangs are particularly strong in Italy, especially in the areas of people smuggling and prostitution," said a spokesman.
"We do not have that level of activity here yet. There is some intelligence to suggest they are getting a measure of control over the Soho vice trade, but it is difficult to tell how much at this stage."
Police in the UK point to recent cases of kidnapping and extortion to highlight what they are dealing with.
In November two Albanians were jailed for drugging and assaulting Arap Mytak, the owner of a car wash in Romford, Essex. Demanding a £50,000 ransom for his release, Adriatik Malaj, 18, and Shpetin Lisha, 19, tied him to a tree in Epping Forest and phoned his family so they could hear his cries for help.
Another cause for concern is the difficulty in infiltrating Albanian gangs, which operate in small groups bound by a code of silence like the mafia's.
A recent assessment of the threat posed by Albanian criminals found many had come to the country working as the "muscle" for Turkish groups, but that they might be ready to challenge their masters for control of the multi-million pound herointrade.
Battleground
The home secretary, David Blunkett, and the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, announced at the beginning of December an international effort to curb the spread of Balkan crime syndicates, and the Met is committed to meeting the threat head on.
With cross-gang warfare simmering in some parts of London, the commissioner, Sir John Stevens, has ordered an increase in the number of armed vehicle patrols and an increase in the number of officers trained to use firearms.
"We will not tolerate this kind of activity," he said.
However, police sources admit that Albanian criminals are not easily intimidated, and that there is every chance that the UK will soon become their next battleground.
"They are pretty tough people, used to hardship," said one source. "If you lived in Albania and crime was your way out to a better life, you might think you've got nothing to lose. That's the way some of them behave."
Me falni qe artikulli eshte ne anglisht por ma do mendja se shumica juaj dine te lexojne anglishten.
Artikulli eshte i gazetes The Guardian botuar dje.
Raped, beaten, sold - a child's view of Albanian gangs' vice grip on Britain
Scotland Yard fearful at spread of violent crime across Europe into UK cities
Nick Hopkins, crime correspondent
Monday December 23, 2002
The Guardian
Anna was 16 when she ran away from her pimp and was rescued from the streets by Scotland Yard's clubs and vice unit. To officers the treatment she received from Mustapha Kadiu was shocking, but it had a familiar ring; he threatened her at knifepoint and said he was going to kill her whenever she failed to earn between £400 and £500 a day (she charged £30 for straight sex). Rather than hitting her - as bruising would make her less attractive to potential clients - he punished her by raping her repeatedly.
Kadiu, an Albanian, ordered Anna (not her real name) to offer her customers unprotected anal sex to earn the money he required, but she told detectives she felt sick at the thought. Abusive as this was, officers discovered it was only part of a desperately sad story.
In protective custody where Anna finally felt safe, she started to reveal details of her past. This led officers out of London to Romania, where she was born and grew up. When she was 12 a relative sold her for £600 to criminals in the former Yugoslavia who forced her into vice. Her journey from there to north London illustrates the slave trade of children from east to west Europe for prostitution.
It also underlines the menace of a small number of Albanian criminals who have established themselves here over the past 10 years.
Bullying their way into the underworld, they have carved out a niche in the sex industry. Their signature is the willingness to use extreme violence, even by the standards of an exploitative and rough trade.
Kadiu, who had only been in the UK for five years, brought Anna to London in July 2001, when she was 15. By that stage Anna had already been sold on twice. Weeks after leaving Romania she was taken to the capital of Macedonia, Skopje, where she was forced to work in a strip club and have sex with customers. A few months later another gang bought her for £2,300. She was taken to Albania and then by boat to Naples, where she was again forced to work as a prostitute.
How Kadiu discovered her is not clear. But he decided he wanted her and had her kidnapped and taken to Rome, where he persuaded her that she should move with him to the UK to start a new life "off the game".
Corruption
He gave her a false passport and paid for a trip which took her via Brussels and Ostend to Harwich, Essex, and then by train to Victoria station in London. Kadiu travelled independently to ensure that if Anna was stopped he would not be caught with her.
He took Anna to his house in Harlesden, where he lived with his cousin, Edmond Ethemi, and a 22-year-old woman who was Ethemi's girlfriend; she was also a prostitute.
Kadiu's promise that Anna would not have to work in vice lasted for four weeks, and then he coerced her back into the business at saunas in Tottenham, Kings Cross, Camden, West Hampstead and Chalk Farm.
"Kadiu would drop her off in the morning and pick her up in the evening, up to 12 hours later, " said Superintendent Chris Bradford, head of the clubs and vice squad, based at Charing Cross police station. "She worked seven days a week, and if she didn't bring in the money, he would give her hell. Kadiu could make as much money from pimping one girl as he could from drug dealing."
Leaving Kadiu was by no means an easy option. "He'd told her that if she went to the police, we would hand her straight back to him," said Supt Bradford. "She had been in countries where the police are corrupt and she knew nothing of Britain.
"She didn't have any documents or any money. And she knew that if Kadiu caught her, he would knock her around."
Despite the risks, Anna plucked up the courage to leave and a source tipped off the squad that a girl was "in difficulty and needed help".
Officers found her before Kadiu could and took her to a safehouse.
"She was traumatised," said Supt Bradford. "From what she told us, she had been abused by one guy after another from the age of 12."
As Anna gave statements to the police, Supt Bradford ordered surveillance on Kadiu and Ethemi which ended with their arrest on December 3 last year.
When officers raided their house they found £30,000 wrapped in newspaper and hidden in a fireplace behind a dressing table and 24 grams of cocaine.
During his trial at Southwark crown court Kadiu claimed Anna willingly went into prostitution and denied harming her. After hearing Anna's evidence the jury decided he was lying.
He was convicted of raping her and indecently assaulting her, and of living off immoral earnings. He was sentenced in December to a total of 10 years in prison.
Ethemi, 21, was jailed for six and a half years for living off immoral earnings and possessing cocaine.
Anna is still in the UK and is rebuilding her life. "She is going to college and trying to put everything behind her," said Supt Bradford. But he has to assume there are other girls out there in her predicament, and that Albanian criminals may be controlling them.
"Ten years ago, we'd hardly even heard of Albania," he said. Although most of the Albanians living in London are law abiding, small cadres that have come here in recent years are causing the Met almost as much concern as the established Turkish and Kurdish networks that control the heroin supply into the capital.
The national criminal intelligence service (NCIS) warned three years ago of Albanian organised crime gangs drifting across western Europe, after evidence suggested they had established footholds in Germany, Switzerland, Greece and Italy.
NCIS said the power of the groups could be gauged by the fact they had taken control of the criminal underworld in Milan after a two-year power struggle with local mafias.
There is already some evidence to suggest that Albanian criminals have set up in Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff, and their presence has been reported in Lancaster and Telford.
While the current threat is still relatively small, "the potential for growth remains high", according to NCIS.
"Albanian gangs are particularly strong in Italy, especially in the areas of people smuggling and prostitution," said a spokesman.
"We do not have that level of activity here yet. There is some intelligence to suggest they are getting a measure of control over the Soho vice trade, but it is difficult to tell how much at this stage."
Police in the UK point to recent cases of kidnapping and extortion to highlight what they are dealing with.
In November two Albanians were jailed for drugging and assaulting Arap Mytak, the owner of a car wash in Romford, Essex. Demanding a £50,000 ransom for his release, Adriatik Malaj, 18, and Shpetin Lisha, 19, tied him to a tree in Epping Forest and phoned his family so they could hear his cries for help.
Another cause for concern is the difficulty in infiltrating Albanian gangs, which operate in small groups bound by a code of silence like the mafia's.
A recent assessment of the threat posed by Albanian criminals found many had come to the country working as the "muscle" for Turkish groups, but that they might be ready to challenge their masters for control of the multi-million pound herointrade.
Battleground
The home secretary, David Blunkett, and the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, announced at the beginning of December an international effort to curb the spread of Balkan crime syndicates, and the Met is committed to meeting the threat head on.
With cross-gang warfare simmering in some parts of London, the commissioner, Sir John Stevens, has ordered an increase in the number of armed vehicle patrols and an increase in the number of officers trained to use firearms.
"We will not tolerate this kind of activity," he said.
However, police sources admit that Albanian criminals are not easily intimidated, and that there is every chance that the UK will soon become their next battleground.
"They are pretty tough people, used to hardship," said one source. "If you lived in Albania and crime was your way out to a better life, you might think you've got nothing to lose. That's the way some of them behave."
