Driving Away Crime from the Streets of Kosovo
by
Neeraj K Singh

A Civpol Officer who was in Kosovo in 1999 related the traffic scenario in Pristina in the following words: “In those days, between the Grand Hotel and Suicide Junction you would hardly come across two or three cars.” Now, you can barely find enough room to drive through the streets of Pristina. The traffic junctions are so clogged by vehicles that you would be lucky to drive through the lights in one go. This has by no means been a slow transition. The automobile revolution has come with a big bang in Kosovo. So has auto crime.

In the year 2000, car thefts accounted for more than 15% of the total crime activity in Kosovo. As many as 3,803 vehicles were reported stolen during the year, almost half of them from the Pristina region. Kosovo also emerged as the favourite destination for vehicles stolen in other parts of Europe. False documents for vehicle registration, insurance, customs, driving licenses and so on were easy to procure.

In fact Kosovo provided an ideal breeding ground for such crime. The administration was in complete disarray after the withdrawal of Serb authorities from Kosovo and UNMIK needed time to completely fill the void, thus leaving enough space for such criminals to operate. The initial pre-occupation of UNMIK Police with the more serious ethnically motivated crimes, the time lag in recruiting and training the new local Kosovo Police Service and the lack of legal institutional support to the police were factors that worked to the advantage of criminals.

Things changed dramatically from the beginning of this year. There has been a sharp fall in the incidence of auto thefts as the heat has been turned on the perpetrators. Cases of car thefts have fallen from a weekly average of 73.4 during the year 2000, to only 41.5 until the end of August 2001. Two persons who were largely responsible for this are Civpol Officer James L. Devasher Jr and KPS Officer Berisha Binak, both from the Auto Crime Unit of Station # 4, Pristina.

Jim Devasher, a Detective for 26 years in the Kentucky State Police in the United States, recently took over as Station Commander of Station # 4. On his arrival in Kosovo in September 2000, Devasher, a member of the International Association of Auto Theft Investigators and a Vehicle Investigations Detective for 9 years, found an ideal ground for utilizing his skills in handling auto theft cases. On his initiative the Auto Crime Unit was established in Station # 4 in November 2000. This soon came to serve as a model for other UNMIK Police Stations all over Kosovo.

As Devasher started work in a corner of a room in the station with a computer and two companions from the KPS, he was confronted by the enormity of the task he had undertaken. Two primary aspects of auto crime had to be addressed – theft of vehicles and falsification of documents. The most important tool for detecting auto crime is ready availability of information on auto theft and the means for the police officers on the streets to identify stolen vehicles. For this, the first imperative was to develop a database on auto crime. Data pertaining to stolen vehicles had to be compiled not only from the different regions of Kosovo, but also from other European countries. Stolen vehicles are ultimately the concern of Insurance Companies that have to pay for them. As such, they are a useful source of information and the investigators did well to tap this vital source. Details pertaining to identification marks on the chassis of various vehicle models were obtained from vehicle dealers. Assistance was also sought from Interpol in verifying the theft of some suspect vehicles stolen in other countries and seized in Kosovo.

The first breakthrough came on 5th April, 2001 when Avdullah Zeka of Vucitrn along with five others was arrested with stolen vehicles. Investigation led to the recovery of 25 vehicles that had been stolen by this gang. Avdullah, who was charged with theft under Article 135 of the Kosovo Penal Code, has been sentenced to six years and six months in prison.

A month later, on the 13th of May, came the arrest of another gang of four persons led by Bajram Ahmeti. They were in the business of stealing cars in Pristina and selling them in Gnjilane. The gangs were organised in three groups – ‘lifters’ who stole the vehicles, ‘transporters’ who drove the stolen vehicles to another destination for disposal and ‘dealers’ who finally disposed of the vehicles.

The gangs led the police to ‘chop shops’ in Gnjilane and Pejë where stolen vehicles were cut apart and sold for parts. Once broken down, the stolen vehicles were difficult to identify and could be easily disposed of. Chassis and frames of several chopped down vehicles were impounded from the chop shops and towed to Pristina. More than 50 stolen vehicles have been recovered this year by the Auto Crimes Unit of Station # 4.

There are about 30 ‘chop shops’ in Kosovo, including 10 in Pristina, some of which serve as a legitimate façade for criminal disposal of stolen vehicles. Devasher, who is specially trained to detect altered Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs), explained how many ‘chop shops’ operate: “If a person buys a wrecked vehicle with a clean title and removes the VIN and places it on a stolen vehicle of the same or similar make and model, that stolen car will not be registered as stolen in the computer because the VIN plate is not listed as stolen.”

Another major problem being faced by the Police Officers manning the Vehicle Check Points is the preponderance of fake documents pertaining to vehicle registration, insurance, driving licence and so on. A major racket involving false registration of vehicles was exposed by the Auto Crimes Unit earlier this year.

At the time when vehicle registrations had just started in Kosovo, there used to be a huge rush at the Registration Office in Dragodan, Pristina. Some 300 to 400 vehicle-owners would be waiting in the queue for registering their vehicles. The queue would form as early as 5 am and go on until night. An enterprising Inspector for Technical Examination of Vehicles at the Registration Centre saw this as an opportunity to make a quick profit. He would approach harassed car owners in the queue and offer to get their registration done for some extra money. Most car owners were happy to pay him something just to avoid standing in the queue, as he would deliver them the documents at their convenience in a few days.

For some days initially, this man just acted as an agent. He would take the vehicle particulars, have the legitimate documents prepared and deliver them to the car owner for a fee. To that extent the car owners were only paying what may be called ‘speed money’ for getting a job done. Gradually however, this Inspector got more enterprising. He and his brother, who was working in an insurance company, decided to manufacture the documents themselves. They offered a range of services to any one who would pay their fee. They would get authentic registrations for stolen vehicles by faking insurance and customs papers. For legitimately purchased vehicles, they would issue false registration documents and pocket the entire money paid for registration by mostly unsuspecting car owners. In effect, they were running a parallel registration-insurance-customs establishment rolled into one.

UNMIK police uncovered the operation and on 30th April the Auto Crime Unit of Station # 4 located and searched the house and car of the suspect. Recovered were several blank documents for vehicle insurance, customs, registration papers, driving licence and documents for contracts of sale and purchase of vehicles. Also found were computers, scanners and CD writers as well as official stamps and seals used for preparing the fake documents. Similar documents were also recovered from the car of the main suspect’s brother. The police seized documents pertaining to 800 cases where money had been taken and the documents were ready for delivery. A third person involved in the crime was also arrested. The loss to the administration of Kosovo from these 800 cases alone has been estimated to be of the order of 3 million Deutsch Marks.

These massive seizures and arrests have reduced auto crime across Kosovo. UNMIK Police now has a better understanding of these operations and is making more directed efforts to combat the crime. On the 25th of May, the Auto Crime Unit raided the office of an advertising company being run from an apartment in Pristina. 38 fake vehicle registration plates along with computers and machine used for preparing the plates were seized. More recently, a gang of four engaged in preparing false customs papers was arrested in Pristina.

Auto Crime Units of UNMIK Police are now working in all the Regions in Kosovo and there is better coordination and information sharing between them. The Units are dominated by the Kosovo Police Service Officers who are proving to be more effective due to their local background. In recognition of this, the KPS are being given more independence. The Station # 4 Auto Crime Unit by example has seven KPS Officers and only one International Police Officer supervising them. These are indeed encouraging signs for the future of policing in Kosovo.

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The writer is a Public Information Officer for the UNMIK Police.