Leader of Albanian crime gang arrested in Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey-Turkish police have arrested the founder and leader of one of Albania's most notorious crime gangs in a raid in Ankara, officials in Albania said Sunday.

Alfred Shkurti, leader of the Banda Aldo Bare crime gang, was detained early Saturday carrying a false Macedonian passport, Albanian Interior Ministry spokesman Altin Ndroqi said.

Turkish news reports said he was detained at a house in Ankara's residential Batikent district following a tip.

Shkurti's gang operated out of Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania, trafficking drugs to Western Europe, according to Albanian Interior Minister Sokol Olldashi.

Albanian prosecutors say Shkurti, who also goes by the name Aldo Bare, was behind more than 15 murders and several hijackings, as well as the destruction of property and the desecration graves.

Shkurti was expected to be extradited to Albania, Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported.

In 2001, Shkurti was sentenced in absentia by an Albanian court to 25 years in prison for one murder, though an appeals court reduced the sentence to seven years.
In 1997, Shkurti killed and decapitated the alleged killer of his brother, showing off the head of his victim in his hometown of Lushnja, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the capital, Tirana, according to Olldashi.

He is also accused of killing a policeman and plotting to kill other officers.
Shkurti leads "one of the most important international drug trafficking rings toward Western Europe," Olldashi said Saturday.

Olldashi said Shkurti used fake Macedonian passports to move in and out of Albania.
Police in Ankara would not comment on his arrest.

The Albanian has been wanted on an international arrest warrant since 2000.
He is believed to have been in hiding in Turkey for the past four years, and narrowly escaped arrest in a raid in Istanbul two years ago, Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper reported.

Albanian police arrested seven alleged members of his gang a week ago. It is believed one of them was instrumental in helping authorities track down Shkurti.