Albanian killer who has lived freely in soft-touch Britain for 18 years
HIS right hand poised menacingly by two lethal knives, an Albanian double killer who has lived quietly in suburbia for the past 18 years is confronted by the Daily Mail.
Our international investigation tracked Avni Metra to his Home Counties lair.
And last night the 53-year-old gangster, who gouged out the eyes of one victim, was finally in custody after we alerted Scotland Yard to his whereabouts. Police had no idea where he was and made little attempt to find him even though he was on an Interpol ‘most wanted’ list and had been arrested in London for wife-beating.
Metra was granted a UK passport after sneaking into Britain in 1998 falsely claiming to be a Kosovan refugee.
He has pocketed thousands of pounds in benefits while working in the black economy and being linked to prostitution rackets.
The father of four will appear in court today to face extradition proceedings. He has been dodging a 25-year jail term that followed his conviction in his absence for two murders.
Only a month ago the Mail revealed that a one-legged Albanian double killer has been granted legal aid to fight being sent home.
Saliman Barci, who similarly claimed he was a Kosovan refugee, was given a fourbedroom house and £2,000 a month in benefits even though he is a cocaine dealer. The 41-year-old also had a prosthetic limb fitted by the NHS.
Metra and Barci are believed to be among scores of Albanian murderers and violent criminals hiding out in Britain.
The Metra case was revealed last month by prosecutors in Albania, a country which wants to join the European Union.
Interpol chiefs in Tirana said they had requested his arrest in 2008 after they learned he had settled in London but were told British police could not find him.
They are seeking at least six Albanian murderers living here under false identities. In April, Justice Secretary Michael Gove said about one in 20 of this country’s 10,000 foreign criminals is from Albania.
Metra fled the former communist state in 1998, a year after killing two brothers in the city of Burrel in the north of the country. In April 1997, he ambushed a man as he crossed a bridge in the town and pummelled him to death with a machine gun.
Three months later, he and his cohorts attacked the man’s brother, gouging his eyes and slicing his ears before eventually shooting him dead.
Wanted for questioning by police, Metra paid £5,000 to a criminal gang to facilitate his trip to the UK and escape justice.
On arrival in London, he claimed asylum by falsely saying he was from Kosovo and by using a false identity.
He has been granted income support and was allocated a housing benefit funded home in North London in 1999, when his wife and young child joined him from Albania, also posing as Kosovan refugees. While on welfare he worked as a labourer and had links to an Albanian prostitution racket in London.
Several years later, he was granted British citizenship and a passport.
In 2010, he was arrested and later charged with domestic violence, spent several weeks in custody and, in 2011, was given a 12-month community order and a 12-month restraining order for subjecting his wife to a terrifying ordeal.
However, detectives did not realise that Metra, using the bogus name Avdul Mekra, was a notorious fugitive.
But he was behind bars last night after the Mail tracked him down to a shabby flat in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.
Despite changing his name slightly he was still using his real date of birth.
However, he appeared stunned to have been traced and, after composing himself, said that he ‘couldn’t remember’ the court case in Albania. He added: ‘I am Kosovar. I don’t know my friend. I am Kosovar.’
Confronted with his real identity as a killer, he insisted he had never murdered anyone and tried to claim that in Albania ‘everything is corruption’. He said he had never been spoken to by British police about the murders in his home country.
Yesterday afternoon he was detained by officers from Scotland Yard’s extradition unit as he drove through Watford.
Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Manson, of the Metropolitan Police Service, said: ‘Following information passed to us by the Daily Mail, the Met started a manhunt to locate Avni Metra. We are grateful to the Daily Mail for all their assistance.
‘Avni Metra, 53, was arrested in Watford as a result of a targeted Automatic Number Plate Recognition operation on Wednesday, June 8.
‘He was arrested on behalf of the Albanian authorities, having been convicted of a double murder and sentenced in his absence.
‘He will appear in custody at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.’
‘Living here under false identities’