Crime in Kosovo

The large Kosovar diaspora which had built up in Western Europe during the 1990s, combined with the political instability, created ideal conditions for Kosovo to become "Europe's crime hub"; well into the 2000s, Kosovo remained associated with both ethnic conflict and organized crime.

[10] In 2005 the U.N Drug report has stated that organised crime in Kosovo controlled the heroin market in the region.

[6] There are several institutions that are battling organized crime including EULEX, KFOR, and Kosovo Police.

In 2000, international agencies estimated that the Kosovo drug mafia was supplying up to 40% of the heroin sold in Europe and North America.

[12] Due to the 1997 unrest in Albania and the Kosovo War in 1998–1999 ethnic Albanian traffickers enjoyed a competitive advantage, which has been eroding as the region stabilises.

[6] According to a 2008 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, overall, ethnic Albanians, not only from Kosovo, supply 10 to 20% of the heroin in Western Europe, and the traffic has been declining.

By 2011, about 1,900 "disappeared" people (about two-thirds of them ethnic Albanians) still remained missing from the Kosovo conflict.

[18] In 2010, a report by Swiss prosecutor Dick Marty to the Council of Europe (CoE) uncovered "credible, convergent indications"[19] of an illegal trade in human organs going back over a decade,[15] including the deaths of a "handful" of Serb captives allegedly killed for this purpose.

Since the issuance of the report, however, senior sources in the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) and many members of the European Parliament have expressed serious doubts regarding the report and its foundations, believing Marty failed to provide "any evidence" concerning the allegations.

Kosovo is no longer[year needed] a transit place or market for illegal weapons smuggling.

[22] According to Amnesty International, the aftermath of the war resulted in an increase in the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation.

[23][24][25] According to the IOM data, in 2000–2004, Kosovo was consistently ranked fourth or fifth among the countries of Southeastern Europe by number of human trafficking victims, after Albania, Moldova, Romania and sometimes Bulgaria.

[27] The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that "Kosovo probably has the highest concentration of security personnel in the world".