I don't know how they got the reputation of being these brutal killing machines around europe as the Albanians rarely commit murders outside of Albania and neighbouring countries, I believe it has to do with the impulsive nature of Albanians as a whole.
Albanian gangs were for some time "new players" in the underworld in Western Europe and as always the media is going to announce a new foreign type of organized crime as the most brutal thing that has ever existed. Like any other type of organized crime Albanian gangs can be extremely violent as well, but in reality they're not that much more ruthless than the other previously established crime groups are. In Western Europe there are way more murders associated with British, Irish and Dutch groups but you don't hear the news make much of a fuzz about that.
