Kosovo Albanian heroin gang sentenced in Germany

SERBIANNA (USA) February 21, 2006 07:10 AM (11:10 GMT)

 

February 21, 2006 -- Two chiefs of a seven-member drug gang ran by Kosovo Albanians and their counterparts in the Czech Republic were given 10 years in prison by the Plzen Regional Court, West Bohemia, for smuggling heroin into Germany.

 

The gang organized the import of 10 kilos of the drug from Kosovo to the Czech Republic and its sale to Germany.

 

Additional two members of the group got six and four years in prison, respectively.

 

The cases of the rest of the gang, two Albanians and one Czech, will be treated in a separate trial.

 

All the members were between 33 to 48 years old and participated in an organization and distribution of heroin during 2002 and 2003.

 

Kosovo Albanian gang hired Czech couriers to transport heroin into Germany and one of them was arrested when handing over three kilos of heroin in Munich in January 2003. He is serving a service in Germany.

 

Another courier was detained by customs officers carrying five kilos of the drug at the border crossing of Breclav, south Moravia, also in 2003. He is now tried together with the Kosovo Albanians.