Albert Veliu's streets for arms sales, drugs and money laundering

Albert Veliu's daily task was as a Kosovo Ministry of Foreign Affairs employee to drive Kosovo General Consulate Teuta Sahaqi through the busy traffic in New York.

However, according to charges brought against him by a court in Brooklyn on Tuesday, he also led a lucrative operation such as arms dealer, drugs and money launderer while keeping in touch with the Cosa Nostra possibly and Albanian organised crime figures in New York and Checky.

As part of an investigation into the American anti-drug unit, DEA, Veliu is suspected of selling an undercover agent an AK-47 and a missile launcher to Yugoslav production.

He had sent his weapons during a trip to Kosovo earlier this month before returning to New York on 21 June from which he directed the operation. On June 27th, four of his associates were arrested in Kline, a city west of Kosovo, with guns, while Veliu and five others were arrested in New York.

Veliu had been told that Mexican drug cartels needed guns to wage a drug struggle near the Americas border.

The 34-year-old also allegedly cleared 800 thousand US dollars allegedly acquired by drugs through a series of companies with the help of collaborators, including his brother Alban.

Alban Veliu, Dilber Kukic, Ekram Sejija, Xhevat Gocaj and Agim Rugova are also accused of money laundering.

In a series of wiretaps with DEA agents, Veliu boasted he was a cousin of Alex Rudaj, a prominent Albanian organised crime leader in New York, according to the indictment provided by the Balkan Network for Investigative Journalism, BIRN.

In 2006, Rudi was tried for tribute and sentenced to 27 years in U.S.

Veliu also said his father-in-law was “lider of an Albanian faction of organised crime in the Czech Republic”, adding that he was the “interested in carrying large amounts of cash to Czechia and other Eastern European states to rinse again in America”.

BIRN was unable to identify his father-in-law.

Veliu and another defendant, Christopher Curanovic, an associate of the Cosa Nostraı are also suspected of having made the deal to sell about 2kg of marijuana to a confidential DEA source.

Anthony Notterle, another associate of the Italian gang, is accused of laundering money.

Fitim Sadiku, secretary general of the Kosovo Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed on Wednesday that Veliu was employed as “vozit in the Kosovo Republic General Consulate in New York”.

“He was a driver for a while but we still don't know how long”, Sadiku told KALLXO.com yesterday.

The accused must appear before the court to hear the charges.