Police identify successes this year, set goals for the future

TIRANA, Aug. 9 – Despite successes achieved during the first half this year police say they have to intensify the fight against organized crime, terrorism and corruption in the future. The fight against drug trafficking remains a top priority for them. Police priorities in the future will be to create a national center for collecting data on drugs and preparing the proper legislation. Police are also to prepare a draft of the law concerning the fight against terrorism and procedures that follow that. Fighting human trafficking remains another top issue. Improving police image before the public opinion is a new goal that police have to deal with. Border control remains a priority issue in the context of the country’s integration into the European Union and NATO.
All these were mentioned Wednesday at a meeting analyzing police results during the first half of this year. Police spokesman Bajram Ibraj noted some results of his institution that had as its main goals increasing public security, and fighting criminality, organized crime and corruption. Ibraj said that murders and sexual crimes had fallen and police discovery capabilities had increased. Ibraj mentioned that 56 criminal groups were hit this year and 879 persons were arrested involved with them. There have been 188 cases of drug trafficking. Giving figures, Ibraj said there have been 1,143 criminal cases and 1,092 of them were discovered by the police. Police have sequestered 81 kg of heroin; 17.8 gr. of methadone; 1.3 kg of cocaine; 2,378 kg of marijuana/hashish; and 0.95 litres of hashish oil. 24,279 cannabis plants and 580 poppy plants have been destroyed. Police have been involved in seven operations with their international colleagues from Turkey, Italy and Germany. Police have identified 672 cases of money laundering, mainly in the illegal trafficking of cigarette packages, coffee, sheep and livestock, mobile phones and gold. During this period police have identified 4,517 crimes and 879 persons at large have been arrested. There have been 44 murders down from 57 in the same period last year but suicides increased to 108 and 59 attempted suicides. Car theft has lowered from 322 in 2005 to 302 this year. But there has been noted an increase in shopthefts from 332 to 408 and home thefts from 282 to 301 this year. Most of them were in Tirana. Road accidents have decreased to 121 deaths from 156 deaths in 2005 in 418 accidents.The number of road accidents is a great concern, said Ibraj, who also added his concern about the increased number of children and teenagers involved in crime. He also appealed for more public awareness against crime in the family.