BIRN: Tons of cocaine and corrupt policemen, the criminal organization is hit!

An organized crime group, suspected of trafficking tons of cocaine from Latin American countries to Europe as well as criminal activity in Albania, was hit on Monday evening by the Special Prosecutor's Office, in an operation carried out in cooperation with Europol, Eurojust and other foreign law enforcement agencies.
The investigations have also revealed the involvement of police officials in the activity of criminal groups in violation of the functioning of the legal state and the rule of law.

According to the press release distributed by SPAK, the court has imposed 11 security measures for members of the criminal group and police officials, but only four of them have been executed by the State Police. Ten of the security measures are "prison arrest" for criminal offenses of drug trafficking, organized criminal group and providing the conditions to commit murder.

SPAK stated that it was able to document four episodes of trafficking in large quantities of narcotics during 2021; which are related to the seizure of 446 kilograms of cocaine in the Netherlands, 69 kg of cocaine in Brazil, 166 kg of marijuana in Germany as well as a quantity of 250 kilograms of cocaine sent from Brazil to Frankfurt airport in Germany.

In addition, two episodes of attempted murder of two citizens of the Republic of Albania have been revealed.

"The documentation of other episodes of narcotics trafficking from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and other Latin American countries towards the countries of the European Union is continuing," the announcement states.

SPAK also stated that the products of this criminal activity were laundered in Albania and that it has documented some assets, for which it requested the seizure.

During the execution of court decisions, control was exercised in apartments and other premises, where monetary amounts, vehicles, telephones, various firearms were found and seized as material evidence.

This is the second major strike by SPAK against organized crime, after the operation "Metamorfoza" in July of this year, where businessman Pëllumb Gjoka and leaders of the police and prosecution were arrested.

Both operations were made possible by information received in Albania by French justice and coordinated by Europol and Eurojust.