Florin Krasniqi
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Florin Krasniqi (born 1964 in Kosovo, Yugoslavia) is a Kosovar Albanian nationalist/gunrunner and naturalized United States citizen.
Krasniqi was a teacher in Vranoc, Kosovo, when he fled to the U.S., sneaking into the country from Mexico in the trunk of a white Cadillac on Christmas Eve, 1988, aged 24. He started out as a roofer and is currently the owner of Triangle General Contractors, a roofing company in Brooklyn.
In 1998-99, he raised $30 million from the Albanian community in the United States for the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and smuggled hundreds of high-powered American sniper rifles to Kosovo for guerrillas, which were distributed by his extended family clan in the region. One of his cousins, Adrian Krasniqi, was one of the founding members of the KLA. Adrian was an engineering student in Priština in 1996 when it is claimed that he lost faith in Kosovo's pacifist government and joined a cell of the then-underground KLA. He headed up the rebels’ weapons-smuggling operation and was the first guerrilla to die in a KLA uniform. Another cousin, Xhevdet Krasniqi, was also involved in the weapons-smuggling.
He resides in Brooklyn with his wife, Danuta ("Danusha") and their three children. She emigrated from Poland and, in 1990, met Florin Krasniqi when she hardly spoke any English. She hoped to run into him again by calling the cab company he worked for whenever she needed a ride somewhere. After several months of trying, a cab showed up with Florin behind the wheel. They married in 1997 and have three children.
Florin Krasniqi travels frequently to Kosovo, where he is building a multi-million dollar hydroelectric power plant. His family in Kosovo helped start the guerilla army that started Kosovo's war for independence from Serbia.
Several books have been written regarding Krasniqi's overt exploits, such as:
- Be Not Afraid, for You Have Sons in America: How a Brooklyn Roofer Helped Lure the U.S. into the Kosovo War was written by Stacy Sullivan and was published in 2004 (ISBN 0-312-28558-2).
- The Brooklyn Connection: How to Build Your Own Guerrilla Army was written by Stacy Sullivan and was made into a film by PBS, directed by Dutch director Klaartje Quirijns, who accompanied Krasniqi one day as he went shopping at an Army/Navy surplus store ([1]).
He has also been featured on 60 Minutes and in at least one article in The New York Times.
[edit] Quotes
"Anything you need to run a small guerrilla army, you can buy here in America. You have all the guns you need here to fight a war. M-16s. That's what the U.S. soldiers carry in Iraq. All the rifles which U.S. soldiers use in every war, you can buy them in a gun store or a gun show." -- Florin Krasniqi
"After Sept. 11, he realized 'If I could do this, who else could do this?'" -- director Klaartje Quirijns, explaining why KLA gun runner Florin Krasniqi decided to let the filmmaker tell his story of how he (mostly) legally bought tons of guns in the United States and shipped abroad. Many of the guns were obtained from such outlets as the Barrett Firearms Company and Schwarzman Surplus (as per[2]).
