US-backed KLA linked to heroin network, say intelligence reports

["MR JAVIER BERNAL" <988005350@98.LINCOLN.AC.UK>]

US-backed KLA linked to heroin network, say 
intelligence reports 
By Ramesh Chandran 
WASHINGTON: The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the fulcrum of Clinton 
Administration's strategic design to repel Serbian forces from Kosovo, has allegedly financed 
much of its war effort with ``profits'' from the sale of heroin. 
Sensational disclosures in the media here citing classified US Drug Enforcement 
Administration (DEA) documents show that drug agents in five countries, including the US, 
believe that the KLA has aligned itself with an extensive organised crime network centred in 
Albania that smuggles heroin and cocaine to buyers in Western Europe. 
The KLA is the organisation that is backed by Washington and most NATO members in its 
war against President Milosevic's Serbian forces to enable hundreds of thousands of ethnic 
Albanians to return to their homeland in Kosovo. Some influential members of the US 
Congress have even called for heavily arming and training the cadres of the KLA in their ``just 
war'' against the Milosevic regime. Now it appears from these classified intelligence 
documents that the ``freedom fighters'' of the KLA have a rather dubious and sinister 
background. 
The DEA documents copiously quoted here on Monday by The Washington Times, an 
unwaveringly critic of the Clinton Administration, maintains that the members of the notorious 
Albanian mafia have links to a ``drug smuggling cartel'' based in Kosovo's capital, Pristina. 
This cartel is allegedly manned by ethnic Albanians who are members of the Kosovo National 
Front (KNF) whose armed wing is the KLA. The DEA documents apparently show it is one 
of the ``most powerful heroin smuggling organisations in the world'' with much of its profits 
being diverted to the KLA to buy weapons. 
For some years the Clinton Administration as well as its predecessors have led a vigorous 
world-wide campaign against the scourge of deadly drug trafficking such as heroin and 
cocaine. Now it appears it is backing an organisation that is reportedly steeped in the noxious 
business. According to the DEA report prepared for the National Narcotics Intelligence 
Consumer's Committee (NNICC) and cited by The Times, the heroin is smuggled along the 
``Balkan route'' in cars, trucks and boats initially to Austria, Germany and Italy, where it is 
routed to ``eager buyers'' in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, 
Switzerland and Great Britain. 
Some of the deadly ``white powder,'' says the DEA report, finds its way to the US. There is 
also a touch of irony in the fact that as recently as 1998, the US State Department listed the 
KLA, formerly known as the ``Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves,'' or UCK, as an ``international 
terrorist organisation'' accusing it of bankrolling its operations with proceeds from the 
international heroin trade and from ``loans'' from terrorists like Osama Bin Laden --who 
heads Washington's ``most wanted'' lists. 
One unidentified drug official quoted in the report claims: ``They were terrorists in 1998 and 
now, because of politics, they're freedom fighters.'' The DEA report also maintains that a 
majority of the heroin seized in Europe is transported over the Balkan route. It also says that 
the Kosovo traffickers were noted for their ``use of violence'' and for their involvement in 
``international weapons trafficking.'' 
A separate DEA report written just last month suggests that although the war in the Balkans 
had reduced the drug flow to Western Europe along the Balkan Route, new land routes have 
opened across Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic. It estimates that every month four 
to six metric tons of heroin leaves Turkey bound for Western Europe, the bulk of it travelling 
over the Balkan Route. 
Other recent independent reports have also echoed similar concerns about the KLA. 
France's Geopolitical Observatory of Drugs stated in a recent report that the KLA was a 
``key player'' in the rapidly expanding drugs-for-arms business and helped transport $2 billion 
worth of drugs annually into Western Europe. Jane's Intelligence Review estimated in 
March that drug sales could have netted the KLA profits in the ``high tens of millions of 
dollars.'' Both President Clinton and some senior members of the Senate have enthusiastically 
proposed arming the KLA to the teeth in its war against the Serbs. Senators Mitch 
McConnell and Joseph Lieberman introduced a recent bill that would provide $25 million to 
equip 10,000 KLA men or 10 battalions --with small arms and anti-tank weapons for upto 
18 months.