A recent mega-operation by SPAK has exposed the massive scheme of how international cocaine trafficking money has been deeply integrated into the Albanian economy. According to data derived from the investigative file, the action, which was executed on Friday to avoid full media attention, has led to the arrest or investigation of a list of about 100 well-known names from the business world and tax executives, who acted as the main mechanism for money laundering.
Invited to a television studio, journalist Artan Hoxha said that the two industries most affected by this operation, which have simultaneously been promoted as the pillars of the economy by the current government, turn out to be the construction industry and the tourism industry. During the conversation, he assessed that investigations have revealed that cocaine money was used to dictate the market, including the establishment of large resorts and even the robbery of public property, as was the well-known case of the Zvërnec area. Businesses had their wings protected through corruption and threats, creating a parallel state where crime operated freely.
The international operation extended to 7 different countries, originating from wiretapping and surveillance in Aruba against German citizens of Kosovar origin, as well as their deepening after the decoding of the Sky ECC platform.
Letters of demand sent to Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium have confirmed the scheme. Although not a single gram of cocaine was seized on Albanian territory from this operation, the evidence administered by internationals clearly shows that the country has for years become a logistical and operational base for organized crime, where billions in drugs are hidden behind the facades of “VIP” investments.
Artan Hoxha: To stop it, that’s exactly why it’s done. And you start directly with the security measures, because you don’t have time to deal with that other thing. However, we were stuck with it, at least since this government came, since its first mandate, it has been constantly saying the same scheme, that the system has been created to integrate into the Albanian economy precisely this scheme that SPAK is finally moving now.
You asked if I was skeptical. At first glance, I say thank you for moving. Then when you start and look at the details inside, because when I saw the list on the first day, since I’ve met some of them, I know them, because it’s been so many years, we’re operators in the territory, there’s nothing else. And they seemed like the tax directorate, those hundred VIPs, as if that list had been lost in their pockets and they had caught these SPAK people and in fact they had immediately put them in jail.
So they really seemed like the 100 biggest tax collectors in Tirana. And of course this has a positive effect. Moreover, when it was done at the moment when the protesters are insisting, that is, one of the main dissatisfactions is precisely this. So the two main branches of the economy in the country today are the construction industry and the tourism industry. These are the two greatest achievements that this government has. And suddenly both branches come out “pig in a poke” in this story with SPAK.
Journalist: A piece of wiretapping, they say they went, but it’s unclear
Artan Hoxha: They don’t go, when I say go, they need letters, actions rather than words like that letter from Balluk, which everyone is looking for, waiting for, who is the next scandal, did it go to parliament. In the meantime, she continues her activity, promotes, moves forward.
Then people say we are… it seems like we have two Albanias, so there is the virtual one and there is a real Albania. Now let’s come to the concrete issue. If you look at the wording of the file, SPAK says that it has started this issue, so this is the issue 287 fraction 1, it started in 2021. So if it had started in 2021, we are in 2016. Do you know how many tons have been moved? Because we are taking it from cocaine, let’s not get into these other things.
Because cocaine is the basis that generates all the income and moves the state, the construction industry, property theft, everything. Yes, that is the basis, because money is needed, where does it come from? Then it is cocaine. And SPAK has divided them into two large groups. And after dividing them into two groups that deal with cocaine trafficking, then it has identified the businesses and the form of how they have acted in the system, how they have deceived the entire system, sometimes they have threatened it, sometimes they have bought it, but they have managed with complete success, to create what we saw in the end there in Zvërnec, that they took Zvërnec. Because where does all that arrogance come from? It comes from when you have warm arms, when they have told you to give them your shoes, that we are behind you.
Now what stands out? This five-year-old. We don’t have time. How was it possible that this case started in 2021 and we remembered it today? Because the case itself, at least I remember for Aruba that we denounced in 2021, 2022, was Operation Black Eagle. And I was lucky enough to find out about it, to be a witness, to go and testify in Brussels. That prosecutor also did the Black Eagles case. And clearly this is the Black Eagles file…