BALKAN GANGSTERS OBLIVIOUS TO BORDERS, SAYS BLUNKETT

BRITAIN is facing a growing threat from Balkan crime gangs, David
Blunkett, the Home Secretary, told an international conference
yesterday. The gangs that traffic tonnes of heroin, run vice rings and
smuggle illegal immigrants were unhindered by frontiers and united by
their thirst for cash, he said.

"The Balkans have become the gateway to Europe for organised
criminals. Organised criminals are more organised than we are. Better,
more effective co-operation is the key to combating international
crime." Mr Blunkett said that London had already seen open warfare
among gangsters, referring to a pitched battle in North London two
weeks ago in which one man died and 20 were injured.

Mr Blunkett, co-hosting a conference for 57 countries at Lancaster
House on the threat of Balkan organised crime, said the terrorist
attacks in September last year gave new urgency to tackling the gangs.

The Balkans smuggling routes could be used to move arms, money and
people, and the collapse of the Soviet Union had increased the
availability of weapons, Mr Blunkett said. More than 650,000 weapons
were seized in Albania alone in 1997.

He said the experience of freeing Afghanistan from Taleban rule had
showed that the "growing scourge" of the heroin trade could not be
faced without co-operation.

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, the international community's
High Representative in Bosnia, said the Home Secretary was right to
emphasise the power of the gangs. "They operate oblivious to
borders. It is the only genuine multi-ethnic community. They are
better organised because they move across states freely, where we are
confined," he said.

Seventy per cent of heroin trafficked into Europe passes through
Bosnia and 60 per cent of women destined for brothels. Lord Ashdown
said: "The front line for us against illegal immigrants, trafficking
in humans and crime is not the White Cliffs of Dover, but
Sarajevo."