Florin Krasniqi (born June 26, 1964)[1] is a Kosovar-Albanian-American businessman, political activist and former arms smuggler. He served as deputy of the Vetëvendosje! political movement in the Kosovan Assembly between 2010 and 2014.
Krasniqi was born in Kosovo, when it was part of the former Yugoslavia. He was a mathematics high-school teacher in the town of Vranovc (Peć) when he fled to the United States, sneaking across the border from Mexico in the trunk of a white Cadillac on Christmas Eve, 1988, aged 24. He began as a roofer and later founded Triangle General Contractors, a roofing company in Brooklyn, New York. 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. A cousin, Xhevdet, and a nephew, Adrian, were among the founding members of the KLA and helped smuggle weapons into the region. An engineering student in Pristina in 1996, Adrian purportedly lost faith in Kosovo's government and joined a cell of the KLA, heading up the rebels' weapons-smuggling operation. Adrian was reportedly the first guerrilla to die in a KLA uniform.[2]
Krasniqi is the owner of Kosova Steel Group.[3] He had been involved in the construction of a multimillion-dollar hydroelectric power plant, Kozhner Hydro Power Plant (Lumbardhi), of which he is still reportedly a part owner.[4]
Krasniqi met his Polish-born wife Danuta in Brooklyn in 1990. She hoped to run into him again by calling the cab company where he worked whenever she needed a ride. After several months of trying, a cab showed up with Krasniqi behind the wheel. They married in 1997 and have three children Ariana, Monika, and Erik.
Several books were written regarding Krasniqi's exploits, such as: