A man convicted of killing three people in Albania, including a married couple murdered over a blood feud, was arrested in New York after evading law enforcement for more than 25 years. Valentin Ftoni was taken into custody on Thursday, Oct. 8, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, ending a search that spanned continents and decades.
Ftoni was wanted for two murders linked to a blood feud and another killing, authorities said, as reported by Daily Voice. According to the U.S. Marshals Service, the agency opened its active investigation into Ftoni's whereabouts in August 2026 after receiving an investigative lead and intelligence from INTERPOL Tirana. He had been evading international authorities for over 25 years before that lead broke the case open.
Ricky J. Patel, the U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of New York, said investigators acted quickly to locate and apprehend Ftoni after receiving information that he may have lived under assumed identities in the New York area. Investigators believe Ftoni entered the United States in the early 2000s and lived under multiple aliases for decades, authorities said. Authorities later discovered he was hiding in the New York metropolitan area, though they have not revealed the exact location where he was arrested.
A Trail of Convictions Back in Albania
Court records from Albania lay out a far more complicated judicial history than the arrest alone suggests. Ftoni's murder convictions stem from two separate Shkodra Judicial District Court decisions, according to VOX News: a September 28, 2001 conviction for the September 19, 2000 double murder in Ças, Velipojë, and a November 18, 2008 conviction for a killing on August 12, 2001. Both trials were held in absentia while Ftoni remained on the run, and he was convicted in absentia for killings committed in 2000 and 2001, according to CNA.al. He murdered a husband and wife in 2000 for blood feud reasons and killed another man in 2001, per that same outlet's reporting.
Ftoni has also been described as the main suspect in a fourth murder in Albania, according to Piranjat. Upon his return, he faces 25 years in prison on both convictions, according to the Marshals.
Decades of False Identities
Albanian State Police investigators determined Ftoni entered the United States using forged documents under at least two false identities, before obtaining and using a third fraudulent identity from a Central American country, according to CNA.al. That pattern of assumed personas allowed him to remain hidden in the New York area for years while Albanian authorities continued to seek his capture.
Tracking him down required a sprawling, multi-agency effort. The operation involved multiple agencies, including INTERPOL Tirana.
What Happens Next
Ftoni was in federal custody pending immigration proceedings. Extradition procedures were also discussed. Any extradition would proceed under a modernized bilateral treaty: the United States and Albania signed an updated extradition agreement in December 2020, which was transmitted to the U.S. Senate in April 2022, replacing a 1933 agreement with a modern dual-criminality framework, according to The American Presidency Project.
The violence underlying the case traces back to a practice still present in parts of northern Albania. Blood feuds, known locally as gjakmarrja, or “blood-taking,” are rooted in the Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini, a traditional set of unwritten customary laws obligating families to carry out retaliatory killings to restore family honor, according to background compiled on Wikipedia. The practice remains an ongoing social issue in the country, where some families have lived secluded in their homes to avoid retaliatory attacks, according to Fair Observer.
