Flag of Albania
The Republic of Albania is an Eastern-European country bordered by Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Macedonia. It lies on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It is notable for its high population of Muslims, and has been a Muslim-majority country since it was conquered by the Ottomon Empire. For much of its history, it has been occupied by other powers. It was occupied by the Kingdom of Italy shortly before World War II and it was also the only Axis-occupied country to throw off Axis occupation without help from the Allies.
After the Italians left in 1944, Albania came under the control of dictator Enver Hoxha, who would rule the country until his death in 1985. Hoxha's rule caused many Albanians to move to the United States of America, settling in major cities like Chicago and New York City. In the latter case, the Albanian immigrant community had a voice thorugh Joseph J. DioGuardi, a former member of the US House of Representatives, and the founder of the Albanian American Civic League. Among those who fled was Arten Bardha, who set up a sand and gravel business in the Big Apple, and Anton Vasic, who set up a bakery. Both men had significant ties to Albanian criminal elements like Ratko Petrovich. In 2004, Bardha was hired by those criminal elements to recover a shipment of heroin that had been stolen from Hydar Raheem. Bardha went overboard, however, and killed several people in the process of recovering the drugs. (L&O: "Enemy") Meanwhile, Vasic used his connection to very subtly bully non-Muslims in the neighborhood. It has yet to be proven that he's committed any serious crimes, but it is suspected that his mob connections were responsible for burning down an adult movie theatre that was located near their local mosque. (L&O: "Angelgrove")
The Albanian mafia was running a movie piracy operation with the help of former child stars, Willie Tunis and Alvin Stevens. Alvin, however, posted a copy of one of their movies on the Darknet before the Albanians could sell it themselves, costing them lots of money and leading them to send out their operative, Ditmir Minojilj, and his gang to kill Stevens. They decide to also kill Willie as well, but they were stopped by the Detective Mike Logan and Megan Wheeler from the Major Case Squad. (CI: "Blasters")
The Kosta Organization[]
An Albanian gang known as the Kosta Organization (KO) was looking to take over new territory with the death of Manfredi Sinatra and the arrest of his son Richard Wheatley, his family, and other associates. To try to stop the KO, the Organized Crime Control Bureau placed Detective Elliot Stabler undercover as Eddie Wagner (nicknamed Eddie Ashes) to try to infiltrate the gang. (OC: "The Man With No Identity")