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| Photo of cocaine seized from the group in 2017. Photo: Bavarian Criminal Police |
Seventeen people have been arrested in Belgium and Germany, while hundreds of kilograms of cocaine have been seized. The Albanian police announced that in cooperation with their colleagues they had carried out searches in the houses of the arrested and also their property investigation has been launched by SPAK.
Hundreds of kilograms of cocaine have been seized by police in Germany and Belgium since 2017 and allegedly belonged to a group led by a 34-year-old from Albania and a 35-year-old man from Lithuania. The two were arrested in a series of police raids on December 15-21, as Reporter writes.
The State Police announced that it has been part of the investigation and that under the direction of the Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime, it has exercised searches in the homes of detainees in Belgium and that a property investigation has been launched against them in the meantime.
According to a source from the State Police, among those arrested are Musa Gjikola, 34 years old and Genti Balliu, alias Fatmir Balliu, 37 years old, resident in Tirana, Ramazan Rraja, 27 years old and Fioralb Rraja, 24 years old, resident in Nikël, Fushë Krujë; Bledar Pepaj, 29 years old, resident in Puka and Fatmir Xhecuka, 33 years old, resident in Laç. Also are arrested a Lithuanian citizen and one with Greek citizenship.
Among those arrested, Ramazan Rraja is the best known in Albania. He is the grandson of Socialist MP Rrahman Rraja and was previously arrested for using public violence against a woman. The scene was filmed and publicly denounced at the entrance of the "Mother Teresa" Health Center. Raja was also mentioned as a threat in the denunciation of a former police officer who fled the country, after claiming that he was threatened after the investigation for the son of the deputy who was convicted of violence against a girl in Kruja. MP Rraja did not react after the news.
"In the framework of the ATOS operation, in different periods during 2019 and 2020, about 232 kilograms of cocaine, a pistol firearm, and about 200 thousand euros were seized by the Belgian police, in cooperation with the Albanian police", it is said in the notification of the Albanian police.
A report by the German police of the Land of Bavaria states that the group led by an Albanian and a Lithuanian brought the drugs from Ecuador through the transport of bananas. In 2017, boxes of bananas with about 200 kilograms of drugs were accidentally discovered in 10 supermarkets in Germany, according to the German police report.