Kosovo Albanian Robbers at Work

Kosovo Albanians arrested in Spain after hundreds of break-ins

Agence France-Presse
(via ClariNet) Tue, 16 June 1998,
For fair use only

MADRID, June 16 (AFP) - More than 50 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of membership in an international ring of robbers, Spanish police said.

The arrested are suspected of having committed nearly 1,000 break-ins and robberies in apartments and companies in a number of Spanish regions and of laundering money from the robberies in Germany.

Police arrested 58 people including three suspected ringleaders in Madrid and Barcelona. German police detained another suspect in Berlin and was said to have asked for three bank accounts to be blocked.

The identity of those arrested was not immediately known.

The suspects face charges of forming a criminal gang, illegal residence, money-laundering, drug trafficking and fraud. Police would not rule out that more arrests would be made as the swoop continued Tuesday afternoon.

MADRID, SPAIN, 16-JUNE-1998: In this image taken from police video, an unidentified suspect of a criminal gang member from the Yugoslavian province of Kosovo is placed into a police vehicle in Madrid Tuesday, June 16, 1998. Spanish police on Tuesday arrested over 70 members of the criminal gang they believed to be from the embattled Yugoslavian province. Most of the suspects, arrested on suspicion of drug-smuggling, money laundering and robbery, carried false identity documents but were known to be from Kosovo, a police spokesman said.
[Photo by Police, AP]