TIRANA, Sep. 11 – An FBI team of agents were stationed in Albania to help the country fight organized crime, Albanian and U.S. authorities said Tuesday.
Albania and the FBI created a “new organized crime task force“ set in the Albanian capital Tirana, making it the 61st country “where FBI agents are now assigned and working hand in hand with state and local law enforcement,“ according to FBI Deputy Assistant Director Roberts.
“The FBI is pleased to partner with the Albanians in this new organized crime task force, which will be housed right here in Tirana. You have the commitment of the FBI that we will work as best as we can with our law enforcement partners here to identify those criminals, to apprehend them, and bring them to justice,“ said Roberts at a ceremony where he signed a memorandum of understanding with the Albanian Interior Ministry.
Post-communist Albania has become a popular country for trafficking of weapons, humans and drugs because of its lax border controls and weak police and judiciary.
The Albanian government has also offered close cooperation with United States and international institutions in the fight against terrorism.
Last July Albania became the first nation to destroy its entire chemical weapons stockpile, funded by a U.S. program for dismantling Cold War-era weapons of mass destruction.
Albania, a small, predominantly Muslim country, has been a vocal backer of the U.S.-led campaign in Iraq, where it deployed a unit of 120 non-combat troops to help with postwar reconstruction. It also has peacekeeping units in Afghanistan and Bosnia.
Albanian Minister Bujar Nishani said the goal of the agreement was an increase in the bilateral cooperation in the fight against organized crime.
U.S. Ambassador John L. Withers II said that the agreement was signed on Sep. 11, “the day in which we Americans observe the anniversary of the terrible tragedy that occurred six years ago.”
“The people who carry out these evil deeds do not respect borders, do not think in terms of individual countries and we must find ways of combating them that looks more broadly and that relies more closely on the cooperation of our friends.
And that is what the signing of this very important Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Albania by the Government of the United States represents. It is my deep honor Što set about a process in which we will pursue transnational crime with seriousness and with a focus that builds on what we have done before.”
