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| Ardi Veliu (left) and Enkelejd Alibeaj |
In Albania, police said they are continuing operations against criminal groups and offenders. Lastly, 300 people were arrested, some of whom were internationally wanted. Meanwhile investigations are continuing on the arrest of 27 suspected persons as members of the four criminal groups that produce and traffic narcotics.
Albanian police announced today that over the last 30 days have arrested 300 personsin the operation "The Punieshement of the matcho mans" or "strong guys".General Director of Police, Ardi Veliu, said that 14 of the arrested were internationally wanted, 154 others wanted in our country, while the other half of the arrested, about 160 people, were identified as individuals violating law and order, while over 40 types of firearms were also seized.
This one-month police operation ran parallel to the one-year "Forces of Law" operation, and just one day ago another operation codenamed "Vol-Vo 4" hit 27 arrests, 4 criminal groups from North to South of the country, producing and transporting narcotics.
The Prosecution of Serious Crimes has requested 44 arrests and four-count charges for members of these four criminal groups based in Shijak and stretching to Has, Shkodër, Lezha, Fier and Saranda. The charges for these arrests are "Production and sale of narcotics", "Narcotics trafficking", "Structured Criminal Group" and "Conduct of Criminal Offenses by Criminal Organizations and Structured Criminal Group", which trafficked drugs from Albania to Italy and in other parts of the European Union.
"The last hour operation" Vol-Vo 4 "struck members of four criminal groups and had an extension in 12 cities without any overdraft, despite the unusual size of a police operation, with 1,500 Police Officers operating in terrain. Many other groups already scheduled by months of intensive investigations, are on the go," said Ardi Veliu, the general director of the police.
Anti-crime experts claimed that a clearly structured and extensively organized organization was run by members of the Avdyli family in Shijak, had a strong drug processing lab in a village of Has and its branches in several coastal cities.
The drug path in the Balkans, according to them, starts from Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Kosovo, Has, Durrës and other coastal cities of Albania to be transported to Italy and further towards Central and Northern Europe in some countries like Germany, Netherlands, England etc.
Trustworthy sources suggested that alongside the Albanian police in this operation and two-year investigation were experts of US, German, and other countries affected by this criminal activity.
They tested together 13 episodes with narcotics and other illegal items of members of these criminal groups, from Lezha, Durrës, Shkodra, Burrel, Saranda, Lushnja, Kukës and Italy.
The culmination of the operation, in addition to arrests at their center in Shijak, was the discovery and the stroke of the drug processing laboratory in Has, where 182.5 kg of morphine were found, divided into 175 packs, 22 liters of liquid substances, which were used for the production of heroin. The materials came from Turkey through Kosovo and after processing into Has, were sent in the coastal cities to go to Italy.
But the Opposition voiced its mistrust over these operations. Its representatives claimed that the Government and the police are linked to criminal group leaders and do not arrest them even when the police of partner countries tell them.
Democratic Party MP Enkelejd Alibeaj said that "the police have become gadget of Edi Rama's propaganda, because in the list with the so-called 300 strong man or macho man, there is no criminal name that actually runs gangs in the country."
He added that the "Force of Law" does not exist, as long as no crime boss has been arrested and no wealth of crime bosses has been sequestered.
"The real strong are the leaders of criminal organizations that Fatmir Xhafa's and Ardi Veliu's police not only do not arrest them, but warn them were to go when international partner operations identify them as organized crime bosses in country. Fatmir Xhafaj and Ardi Veliu have the obligation to inform the citizens: How many organized crime bosses have been arrested? How many mafia families have been destroyed? How many are the Drug Laboratories discovered by the Albanian Police without the request of its partners? Considering success of the arrest of the elderly, guards or drivers is, at least, a shrug of the real war with crime "- said Mr. Alibeaj.
The fight against organized crime and corruption is one of the main demands of the European Union before the negotiations with Albania on full membership can be opened.