Albert Veliu Among Eight Defendants Charged with Money Laundering, Extortion and International Arms Trafficking
Later today, Albert Veliu and Anthony Noterile will be arraigned at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York on charges relating to the operation of extortion, money laundering and narcotics trafficking schemes that ultimately resulted in Veliu’s sale to law enforcement of over a dozen AK-47s and an M80 Zolja Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher equipped with a 64 millimeter rocker. Defendants Dilber Kukic, Ekram Sejdija, Xhevat Gocaj, Agim Rugova, and Alban Veliu are also charged in connection with a related money laundering scheme.
As alleged in the complaint and a detention memorandum, the investigation revealed that Christopher Curanovic, an associate of La Cosa Nostra, sought to recover an extortionate debt from a former criminal associate. Through the use of wiretap evidence and confidential sources working at the direction of law enforcement, agents were able to determine that Veliu, Curanovic and Noterile, another associate of La Cosa Nostra, devised an illicit scheme in which a money laundering operation would facilitate the re-payment of Curanovic’s extortionate debt.
During the course of the investigation, the defendants laundered approximately $800,000 in purported drug proceeds. Defendants Kukic, Sejdija, Gocaj, Rugova, and Alban Veliu facilitated the money laundering scheme by, among other things, exchanging the cash for purportedly “clean” checks supported by fraudulent paperwork. Separately, Curanovic and Veliu also brokered the sale of approximately five pounds of marijuana to a confidential source.
In addition, Veliu informed a DEA confidential source that he had access to firearms in Kosovo for distribution. Thereafter, Veliu used his connections to broker the sale of more than a dozen AK-47s and the M80 Zolja Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher equipped with a 64 millimeter rocker.
During one recorded conversation, Veliu referred to the AK-47s as “sneakers” and to the rocket launcher as a “Shaq-sized sneaker.” Search warrants conducted by Kosovo law enforcement netted additional weapons, ammunition and over 60,000 euros in cash.
The defendants are scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Steven M. Gold at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn.
