- "They showed up from the east, six, seven years ago. Fifteen, twenty of them. Now there are hundreds. We don't even know how many. And dangerous."
- ―Jean-Claude Pitrel explaining the Albanians' origin
- " Their previous MO was to offer women from the emerging East-European countries like Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria jobs in the west as maids and nannies. Once they smuggled them in, they'd addict them to drugs and turn them into prostitutes. Lately, however, they've decided that it's more economical just to kidnap traveling young women. Saves on transportation costs."
- ―CIA agent Sam Gilroy on the Albanians
The Albanian Mafia is a criminal/terrorist organization originating from Albania and the main antagonistic faction in the 2008 film, Taken and its 2012 sequel, Taken 2.
History[]
Crime Operations[]
According to CIA information on the Albania Mafia, they mafia offered jobs to women from emerging European countries and therefore drugged them before turning them into prostitutes. However, the mafia extended their territory into France and decided that they should consider kidnapping traveling young women.
Taken[]
Kimberly Mills, daughter of former CIA operative Bryan Mills, and her friend Amanda head to Paris to attend a concert by Irish rock band U2 on their European tour. After arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport, they meet a charming Frenchman named Peter, who is in fact a scout for the mafia, who offers to share a cab with them and so learns where they are staying. Kim believes they are staying with Amanda's cousins but, upon arriving at the apartment, learns that the cousins are actually in Spain, and becomes slightly nervous. While talking to Bryan on the phone in the bathroom, Kim sees Amanda being kidnapped by intruders. Bryan instructs her to go to the nearest room and hide under a bed. He explains that when the men find her, she has to shout out their physical descriptions. Kim is pulled out violently from under the bed, and she complies with her father's instructions before the phone is found. Bryan warns the person over the phone that they have one chance to release his daughter before he begins hunting them down and killing them. He's told "good luck" and the call ends.
Bryan travels to Paris, and finds Peter at the airport attempting to lure another tourist. After a confrontation and chase, Peter is hit and killed by a passing truck before Bryan can interrogate him. Bryan then seeks out Jean-Claude Pitrel, a former French intelligence officer who now works a desk job. Jean-Claude is relatively unhelpful but does direct Bryan to Porte de Chichy, where an East European gang are rumored to be prostituting women. Jean-Claude afterwards has the police put a tail on Bryan and soon warns Bryan that his vigilante methods will result in him getting deported, but Bryan avoids arrest. Bryan follows one terrorist to a brothel at a construction site, where he finds a girl wearing Kim's jacket. He fights off the brothel guards and escapes with the girl. After the girl awakens, she gives Bryan enough information about the house where she met Kim to allow him to find it.
Bryan confronts the Albanians, and identifies the kidnapper on the phone as Marko Hoxha. He wounds Marko and kills the others. Searching the house, he finds several captive teens. Among them are Amanda, who is dead from an apparent overdose. In the basement of the house, Bryan straps Marko into a makeshift electric chair and tortures him into divulging Kim's location; as a virgin, she was valuable on the black market, and sold to an auctioneer named Patrice Saint-Clair.
Bryan infiltrates Saint-Clair's mansion during large party, which serves as a façade for an auction of girls in the basement. Bryan forces a Middle Eastern bidder to purchase his daughter, but is captured after they exit the room. Bryan frees himself and kills Saint-Clair's henchmen. He forces Saint-Clair to reveal where Kim has been taken before killing him. Bryan races to the luxury yacht owned by a sheikh named Raman and boards it. There, Bryan kills the guards, confronts Raman in his boudoir, and shoots him in the head - thus rescuing his daughter.
Taken 2[]
The funerals of the Albanian terrorists killed by Bryan in the first film are held in Tropojë, Albania. Murad, a terrorist leader of the gang and Marko's father, vows to capture Bryan, bring him to the graves, and avenge their loved ones. Murad's men (led by Suko) track down Jean-Claude Pitrel and torture him by stabbing him with scissors to try to learn Bryan's location. Afterwards, they end up bribing an official for the information.
At Istanbul, Turkey, Brian and Lenore Mills go out for lunch while Kim hangs out by the pool. However, Bryan realizes they are being followed. After a chase, the men capture Lenore, forcing Bryan to surrender, but before he does, he calls Kim and warns her to get to safety and wait for further instructions. Kim goes on the run to get to her father's room. Upon removing her flip-flops, Kim ends up getting on the window ledge and entering the room through the window. Her would-be abductors shoot another hotel guest and two security guards, but fail to find her as she hides in the closet as instructed and they are forced to flee when the alarm is sounded.
Bryan wakes with his hands tied to a pole in a basement of an old house. Using a tiny phone that he had hidden in his sock, Bryan calls Kim, instructing her to go to the American Embassy and tell them what happened, but she begs for a chance to help him and Lenore. Under Bryan's guidance, she opens his suitcase, containing weapons, and throws a grenade onto a deserted rooftop parking lot. While he is tied up, the Albanian terrorists bring in a struggling Lenore. One takes a knife and makes a small cut to her throat before hanging her upside down by chains. They tell Bryan he has to watch her bleed out and die before he dies. After the terrorists leave, Bryan is able to undo his chains, take Lenore down, and call Kim to detonate two more grenades so he can determine his location. The grenade detonates, killing the Albanians and enabling Bryan to guide Kim close enough to see steam he sends up a chimney to mark his precise location.
After killing the rest of the terrorists and rescuing Lenore, he confronts Murad, who confirms Bryan's guess that his two remaining sons will seek revenge in turn if Bryan kills him. Bryan offers to let Murad live if he gives his word to end his vendetta. When Murad nods his head, Bryan drops his gun and starts to walk away. Murad seizes the gun and tries to shoot Bryan, only to discover that Bryan has removed the cartridge from the pistol's chamber. As Murad's actions proved his untrustworthiness, he is impaled on a towel hook by Bryan. Bryan then picks up Lenore and leaves.