The rise of war-hardened Balkan crime groups in South America’s cocaine market

The rise of war-hardened Balkan crime groups in South America’s cocaine market

Global Initiative report reveals organised crime groups from the Western Balkans have firmly embedded themselves in South America’s cocaine trade.

Ecuador has become fertile ground for the illegal activities of criminal groups in the Balkans and a centre for their operations. This is considered by Fatjona Mejdini, director of the Observatory for Illicit Economies in South-Eastern Europe of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). Mejdini, who is also an investigative journalist in Albania, her native country, published this week the report entitled The connecti…