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Violent, organised and in Australia: Dangerous Albanian criminals make a mockery of migration system
Police and intelligence agencies are concerned that the organised crime gangs are exploiting weak immigration controls to run large operations in Australia.
By Nick McKenzie, Michael Bachelard and Amelia Ballinger
From left: Albert Biba, Victoria Police at a shooting scene in Ringwood, and Diego Biba.Credit: 60 Minutes, The Age
Violent crime syndicates run by Albanian immigrants on temporary visas have so successfully exploited holes in the country’s border security and migration system that they are now challenging bikie gangs for control of Australia’s lucrative cocaine market.
State and federal law enforcement officials have issued repeated warnings in confidential reports circulated to Home Affairs that the Albanian mafia has strategically rorted the migration system for more than a decade to build powerful criminal enterprises.
Secret policing intelligence links the Albanian mafia to shootings or suspicious deaths in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, large-scale drug importations and money laundering.
High threat
Separately, confidential files sighted by this masthead show that in December 2020, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission warned Home Affairs officials that “Albanian Organised Crime” was posing a high threat to Australia given its ability to exploit migration programs and there was a pressing “need to make Australia less palatable” to Albanian gangsters.
The criminal intelligence commission concluded that the Albanian mafia had become proficient at “exploitation of Australia’s migration programs as a means to gain entry and remain onshore” and was backed by “professional people smuggling syndicates” expert in the “exploitation of visa programs”, including student, asylum seeker and partner visas.
The revelations come as part of the Home Truths series by The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes, starting today, that has unearthed significant evidence suggesting Australia’s Home Affairs department has catastrophically failed in two of its core duties: preventing criminal infiltration of Australia and management of offshore processing.
They add to evidence previously documented by this masthead and in the Nixon inquiry – that concluded in March, but which the Albanese government has declined to release – that shows the nation’s visa system has been exploited by drug and sex traffickers.
The Nixon inquiry was called by Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil after the Trafficked series by this masthead revealed how human traffickers were rorting the migration system with impunity.
The report by former police chief Christine Nixon says “it is clear gaps and weaknesses in Australia’s visas system are allowing ... criminal organisations and unscrupulous people ... to exploit and make money”.
This masthead has made Nixon’s complete report available for subscribers to access online.
Murders, threats and cocaine
The Home Truths series has also uncovered major examples of these weaknesses. They include the case of an Albanian crime figure who entered Australia using a false passport in 2013 and was granted several visa extensions over the next five years.
Two weeks after one extension was granted in 2018, he shot and killed a Melbourne man at a cannabis grow house. He was arrested by Victoria Police, charged with murder and ultimately pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
A second Albanian gangster who also exploited the visa system over many years was arrested in 2020 after being implicated in a brazen plot to stalk and threaten police. The plot included the planting of cocaine at a detective’s home.
Victoria Police Commander Paul O’Halloran.Credit: Justin McManus
Another case uncovered by this masthead involves a man getting a visa despite stabbing to death two men in an Albanian bar.
Authorities have also uncovered an Adelaide-headquartered Albanian mafia cell linked to one of the most powerful political figures in Albania. Eight of the political figure’s nephews have been investigated over suspected crimes relating to drugs and money laundering.
Police intelligence seen by this masthead describes how all eight gained Australian visas using spurious documentation. One is facing drug trafficking charges over a $1.6 million cocaine importation into South Australia.
Eight police sources, who spoke to this masthead on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak publicly, complained that the Home Affairs department had failed to act adequately on the rorting of the visa system by organised crime groups.
Calls for action
Victoria Police Commander Paul O’Halloran warned that the Albanian mafia had become “very adept” at exploiting Australia’s immigration rules and “continue to work to get their people they want into this country to assist them in their enterprises”.
“I think anything that would prevent criminals and organised criminals manipulating immigration systems would be of use,” he said.
Former homicide squad detective Charlie Bezzina agreed, saying the groups involved were ruthless.
Former homicide investigator Charlie Bezzina has warned of the danger posed by Albanian gangsters.Credit: Eddie Jim
“This is an organisation or a particular group ... that are prepared to kill and wipe out families, not just the one individual. And that’s what makes them so feared,” he said.
In late 2020, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission – which at that point was part of Home Affairs – assessed that the Albanian mafia was expert in the “exploitation of visa programs” and were assisted by “professional facilitators, lawyers and Registered Migration Agents”.
Since 2000, an entire Albanian organised crime structure had established itself in Adelaide, with tentacles stretching across Australia, the commission concluded.
It warned this mafia cell’s members had spent years obtaining temporary visas, citizenship and even federal government licences to work as migration agents.
In its briefing paper, the commission called for major reforms including the establishment of a multi-agency taskforce, increased vetting of migration agents, a significant boost to biometric border security checks and other changes to prevent the rorting of temporary visas.
More than two years later, Nixon demanded similar reforms in her report and warned that “abhorrent crimes” were being committed.
The Nixon report found that the Australian Border Force – the operational arm of Home Affairs – had “limited legislative powers to effectively investigate visa and migration fraud” and that the department had allocated far too few personnel to the task.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said the Nixon report’s findings were significant and would contribute to systemic reform of the migration system.
In response to questions about the organised criminals rorting the system she said: “The standards of conduct and behaviour required of people in Australia on a visa are clear and rigorously enforced.”
A spokesperson for Home Affairs insisted the departments were “highly successful” in defending Australia from immigration threats, with only “isolated exceptions”.
Policing sources speaking anonymously said Albanian mafia cells in Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne were suspected of importing tonnes of cocaine into Australia in partnership with the Calabrian mafia and Balkans crime lord Vaso Ulic and then laundering their money via property, nightclubs and the flower trade.
Drug kingpin Vaso Ulic.Credit: AFP/Facebook
Those sources said the Albanian mafia was now competing with the Comanchero bikie gang as cocaine importers and had been linked to underworld deaths in South Australia and Sydney in the past six months.
O’Halloran said Albanian organised criminals were ambitious, capable of extreme violence and regarded by his detectives as highly dangerous.
“They’re moving into other types of drugs, cocaine, methylamphetamine. They’ve also been involved in high-end burglaries on top-end properties. So where there’s an ability to gain profit, they’ll do that,” he said.
Fake passports, sham marriages
Home Truths, a major investigation by this masthead and 60 Minutes, has tracked a number of specific cases that reveal how Albanian mafia figures obtained bridging visas after being caught with fake passports or in sham marriages and have then gone on to engage in serious crime.
Even after being convicted of criminal offences in Australian courts, some Albanian criminals have remained in Australia or been able to leave Australia and re-enter under new identities.
Albert Biba was convicted of manslaughter after shooting a man at a grow house.Credit: 60 Minutes
Among the worst cases are Albanian gangsters and brothers Diego and Albert Biba. Albert arrived in Australia in August 2013 using a Greek passport and a false name.
Even though his fake identity was discovered, Biba was later granted several temporary visas under his real name.
In April 2014, court files reveal he married a woman in a sham wedding to apply for a partner visa, and when this was rejected, he used the visa appeal process to continue obtaining bridging visas for years.
Throughout this protracted legal trail, Albert Biba was trafficking drugs, according to police documents and confidential sources who are not authorised to speak publicly.
In April 2018, he successfully stalled his deportation in an appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, claiming he feared for his life if he was sent home due to the anger of an ex-girlfriend’s family.
Two weeks later he shot dead 28-year-old Melbourne carpenter Andrew Toumayan.
Police investigate the shooting of Andrew Toumayan in April 2018.Credit: Fairfax Media
Toumayan had triggered a silent alarm as he tried to burgle one of Biba’s cannabis grow houses in suburban Melbourne.
Biba, who was carrying a gun, confronted Toumayan and shot him dead. Albert Biba was charged with murder, remanded in custody and later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Toumayan’s mother Lena told the Victorian Supreme Court that in killing her son, Biba had caused immense trauma to her and her daughter.
“The killer killed three people [at the] same time, my son, my daughter and myself. [I] suffer every day of my life.”
Police seize cannabis plants from a Blackburn North home on August 20.Credit: Victoria Police
After Albert was jailed, his brother Diego Biba, who had also entered a sham relationship after arriving in Australia and embarked on a number of visa appeals to stall his deportation, stalked and threatened the homicide squad detectives who had jailed his brother.
Court files released to this masthead after a series of applications show Diego Biba tried to plant several kilograms of cocaine from the UK at the Melbourne home of a homicide squad detective.
He was arrested in August 2020 for stalking and intimidating the officer, offences to which he pleaded guilty in the Victorian County Court in April 2022. He has not been charged with any other offences, including drug-related offences.
Diego Biba was released into the community and retained his bridging visa for more than 12 months.
Diego Biba outside court.Credit: 60 Minutes
Diego Biba’s visa was only cancelled by the home affairs minister last month after this masthead interviewed the Victoria Police about why criminals such as Diego Biba were able to enter and remain in Australia even after being convicted.
Home Affairs declined to comment on the Bibas’ cases.
Wanted for murders in Albania
In a separate case, Melbourne man Ilir Gavoci entered Australia in 2014 on a temporary visa and has remained here since, despite facing serious criminal charges in Albania.
In 2007, he was convicted of killing two people in his tavern in the Albanian city of Shkodër.
However, he was never arrested for the crime, and in 2012, prosecutors in the Albanian capital, Tirana, requested the sentence be annulled because Gavoci had never been detained over the matter.
In May 2020, Tirana prosecutors seized $400,000 that an associate was transferring to Gavoci’s account in Australia. Home Affairs declined to comment on Gavoci’s case and a lawyer for Gavoci did not respond to questions.
A fourth case uncovered by Home Truths involves an Albanian national suspected of being a significant player in a crime syndicate in Melbourne, who was recently bailed on drug charges.
Police sources said the man – who used an alias to set up and run a string of cannabis grow houses – had committed serious crimes in Australia a decade ago but managed to re-enter the country using a false identity.
The sources said improved biometric testing would have prevented the man from re-entering Australia.
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