SPAK has finalized two major operations against international drug trafficking and money laundering in recent days, imposing security measures on several people and seizing hundreds of assets worth tens of millions of euros. According to the investigations, the suspected profits from cocaine trafficking from Latin America to Europe have been invested in Albania over the years.
Invited to the show “Live in the Morning”, journalist Artan Hoxha said that the last two SPAK raids shed light on how Albanian cocaine trafficking groups have operated for years in collaboration with criminal networks in Latin America and Europe.
According to him, investigations show that the money generated from drug trafficking was not kept abroad, but was invested in strategic sectors of the Albanian economy.
The journalist emphasized that these files prove not only the international reach of criminal organizations, but also their ability to penetrate the formal economy through large investments and various companies.
Hoxha: Our main concern is the criminal organizations operating in Albania. This is our problem. They are the organizations that sell narcotics at the doors of 9-year-old schools. If the groups manage to create addiction in children, they have secured the market for 3-4 decades, because they are the users. The US is the largest market in the world today for users. The battle is not won only by hitting drug traffickers. Recently, Albania has been making a big move to benefit as soon as possible from EU membership. One of the criteria that we are better at is this part, we are rushing to hit the groups that sell narcotics in EU countries. The EU is the richest market. Every criminal organization wants to sell in the European Union. Is this informal money that is in the EU made only by Albanians? No! Albanians have now entered there, they entered the market late. The SPAK operation last Friday was a file referred to in 2021.
Hoxha said that an important part of these investigations is based on data from the “Sky” platform, which according to him have revealed communications and connections between various characters involved in international drug trafficking. He also focused on several names mentioned in the file, among them Isa Aliu, but stressed that, according to his assessments, he cannot be considered the main figure of these criminal networks.
He also focused on a PIN code mentioned in the Belgian file, which according to him remains unsolved and is linked to a much more important character in this network. Hoxha said that this is an Albanian with great weight in the international cocaine trafficking, who according to investigations has gone so far as to establish production laboratories in Colombia.
Hoxha: These investigations are mainly based on SKY data. You mentioned some names, it was Aliu. All those who know the drug trafficking have laughed, because he is not the leader. It cannot be Aliu before Dritan Gjika who financed the Ecuadorian president with 5 million dollars in the elections. He has been based in Ecuador for 16 years. There is Eldi Dizdari, where did Aliu come from?
In the first investigation, it is mentioned all the time by the Belgian prosecution, it is a very interesting pin code. It has not yet been revealed who he is. He is a much more important Albanian than these. Why? Because he has a cocaine laboratory in Colombia. A man who has a cocaine laboratory in Colombia where some of the strongest cartels on the planet exist, do you understand what level he has reached? Ecuador itself is not a producing country. Cocaine production takes place in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru. Ecuador is a transit country. Dritan Gjika was great, but this other one who has both the laboratory and the production itself, can you imagine how big he has reached?
SPAK in Albania has only done the clearing and sending of letters of recommendation. This is a success. These are historic investigations. But we are hitting until 2021. From this year, what are the new groups?
All those who have been hit in the last two actions are not characters exposed to serious events. There is a hierarchy among drug traffickers. We have those who see it as a business and take care not to commit these other crimes, then we have traffickers who are involved in more serious crimes and we have traffickers who launder money and are also involved in political connections. Albanians do not yet have a cartel, they have alliances.