1989

In Berlin, in November, the collapse of the Berlin Wall symbolizes the end of the Communist empire.

In Yugoslavia, a civil war begins when Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic uses force in an attempt to stop the secession of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia.

In Kosovo, Milosevic revokes the province's autonomy and begins a program of systematically disempowering ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's population.

In Albania, the fall of the Communist one-party state leaves Albania wide open to criminal opportunists and drug cartels.

In Belgrade, the head of the Serbian Secret Police, Bruno Slovanic, along with a number of his key aides, is killed under mysterious circumstances.

 
1992

In Albania, backed by a good deal of funny money, Sali Berisha becomes the first "democratically elected" president in modern Albanian history.

In the former Yugoslavia, characterized by the return of concentration camps and brutal massacres, war is under way among Bosnians, Croats and Serbs.

In Kosovo, two governments now exist: one for Albanians, another for the Serbs.

In Vlora, Albania, Drago and Hugo Drugilovic depart for the United States.

 
1995

In Albania, sealed-tractor-trailer caravans carrying drugs and arms via Macedonia are packed onto ferries heading to Italy. Meanwhile, in Switzerland, ethnic Albanians now based in Albania still control the heroin market.

In Dayton, Ohio, the Serbs, Bosnians and Croatians initial a U.S.-sponsored peace settlement that creates both a new Federation of Bosnia and a Bosnian Serb Republic. The Kosovo problem is not addressed, however, by this settlement.

In Kosovo, Serbian courts imprison 68 Albanians for setting up their own police force. In the mountains and along the border linking the province to Albania, the first vestiges of what will be the Kosovo Liberation Army begins to form.

In San Francisco, Drago and Hugo Drugilovic take rooms at the Dark Hotel, an old Barbary Coast institution gone to seed.

 
1997

In Serbia, the head of the Belgrade Drug Treatment Institute, Dr. Miluntin Nanedovic, estimates that 30,000 drug addicts now reside in Belgrade. Cannabis use is also on the rise, with crop plantations now growing in public parks and in private gardens all throughout the republic. In the main, the new drug traffic is handled by the Serbian Secret Police, and managed by a number of Serbian paramilitary units made infamous by massacres in Croatia and Bosnia.

In Albania, the collapse of government-sponsored pyramid banking schemes bankrupts the Albanian government. There is no tax collection, border police or police of any kind in many of the regions. Rival gangs engage in public shootouts in pursuit of power, and more than 2,000 Albanians lose their lives as a result of these skirmishes.

In San Francisco, on May 17, 1997, Hugo Drugilovic is shot and killed by Boris Solavic, brother of the late Belgrade police chief. A month later, with a KLA honor guard on hand for the ceremony, Hugo Drugilovic's body is buried among his mother's people in the village of Vlora, Albania. Drago Drugilovic is in attendance.

 
1998

In Albania, Muslims from around the world are arriving every day to volunteer for service in the Kosovo Liberation Army. The leadership of the army is made up of battlefield-trained Muslim officers who have already fought, and in some cases defeated, Milosevic's forces in Croatia and Bosnia.

In Kosovo, Milosevic has instituted "emergency measures" that have resulted in the discharge of more than 140,000 Albanian professionals through the province. By this time it is estimated that more than 400,000 Albanians have fled Kosovo.

In Belgrade, Milosevic's police, paramilitaries and army are putting together a full battle plan to cleanse Kosovo of its Albanian population. The campaign is carefully calibrated, and benefits from the experiences in Bosnia and Croatia.