The Trump administration is trying to extradite Blerim Skoro, a 55-year-old Albanian of Kosovo origin and father of three, who claims to have served as an undercover CIA agent infiltrating Al-Qaeda after the events of September 11.
According to ABC News, Skoro was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents outside an immigration office in New Jersey, where he was renewing his documents. Following his arrest, his lawyers filed an emergency motion in federal court to block his deportation, arguing that the U.S. government had promised him permanent residency in exchange for his important services in protecting national security.
According to court files and FBI documents, Skoro’s cooperation with American intelligence began while serving a sentence for drug trafficking in 2000, a crime he claims he committed as he struggled to support his refugee family after fleeing the conflict in Kosovo.
After the September 11 attacks, he was recruited by intelligence to gather information on radical Islamic groups, helping to secure the arrests of key figures in Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab and Hezbollah, as well as preventing a plot to build a uranium “dirty bomb” in Kosovo.
His relationship with the Secret Service included high-risk missions abroad from 2007 to 2009, where he traveled to training camps in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Pakistan. His cover was eventually blown, leading to an assassination attempt in which he was shot in the leg before re-entering the US in 2014.
Such stories of his activities were also reflected in the 2024 documentary “The Accidental Spy” and in an interview on the popular Shawn Ryan Show. Despite the fact that in 2022 a federal judge granted him protection from deportation under the Convention Against Torture due to the risk of physical elimination by terrorist networks if he returned to Kosovo, ICE detained him without obtaining judicial approval.
From the detention center, Skoro expressed his shock at what he described as betrayal by the American state, while his legal defense is seeking immediate court intervention to stop his transfer.