Lataj appears to enjoy the trappings of wealth in Toronto, while also donating to causes back in his native Kosovo. Social media posts and news clippings indicate he has given at least 200,000 euros ($235,000) to community facilities in his homeland.
Reporters could not find evidence of his profession other than two firms that report very little activity, including one that invested in a junior mining company. In police files from Canada, his occupation is listed as “unknown.”
Brooklyn Bank Burglary
Lataj has led a colourful life across the Atlantic since leaving Kosovo at some point in the 1980s. Immigration case files show Lataj entered the U.S. illegally in 1986. He was later placed into deportation proceedings, but granted voluntary departure instead of being forcibly removed.
Court records show that he failed in an asylum claim in 1987, but he remained in the U.S. until the appeal process was exhausted, and racked up a criminal record there. Immigration records reveal that Lataj has been convicted of several charges in the U.S., including a 2001 burglary case.”
According to legal documents from the burglary case, a court found that Lataj had become involved with a group of emigres from the former Yugoslavia and Albania who had allegedly “engaged in and planned several commercial and bank burglaries in the New York area.”
Lataj was arrested and convicted for the burglary of a Brooklyn bank after police found the roof was breached with cutting tools. Lataj was caught trying to flee in his Cadillac, which featured heavily in police surveillance reports, and he was sentenced to two years in federal prison.
After being released in March 2003, Lataj was once more slated for deportation to Kosovo, which was eventually ordered in 2009. As part of his appeals process, Lataj had argued to U.S. officials that deportation would put him at risk, because of a “blood feud” his family was involved in back home.
A 2013 U.S. indictment obtained by OCCRP and the Investigative Journalism Bureau named Lataj along with several suspects including Arif Kurti, also known as “the Bear.” American authorities identified Kurti as an alleged leader of a drugs and money-laundering gang operating out of New York. Kurti was convicted of drug trafficking in the case in 2014.
Lataj was never brought to trial in that case, although the indictment linked him to marijuana trafficking and money laundering.
Lataj’s name has been redacted from the current version of the indictment. His name was visible in an earlier version of the document due to a poor redaction effort, which was fixed in later versions. Officials at the Eastern District of New York declined to comment on reasons for the redaction, or whether Lataj was ever charged.
Bad Company
Lataj eventually moved north to Canada.
A federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) document dated September 2016 shows that, by 2013, police suspected him of drug trafficking in Toronto and elsewhere in the country. An RCMP spokesperson said that due to the historical nature of the case file, they were unable to assist reporters in their inquiries. It’s unclear if Lataj was charged.
The 2016 RCMP police file shows a Canadian police officer suspected Lataj of trafficking cocaine alongside Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán. Described by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency as “the world’s most dangerous, prolific drug trafficker,” Guzmán is serving a life sentence.