Power official arrested on corruption
TIRANA, Jan. 26 – Police reported they had arrested Lirjan Qirici, 37, after the Power Distribution Operator, OSSH, had sued him of abuse of post causing damage of 2.6 million lek.
Qirici has been an employee of the power operator favoring certain clients in exchange for illegal financial personal profit.
2 dead found in a car
TIRANA, Jan. 26 – Police reported they had found a 58-year old man and a 40-year old woman dead in a car early Tuesday.
The two people, who had no family connection to each other, had very likely died of asphyxia. The car and its conditioner were on and it also worked on liquid gas.
Police gave no causes of death only saying the investigation was continuing.
Alleged drug traffickers arrested
DURRES, Jan. 26 – Police last Sunday arrested two people at the biggest port in the country, Durres, allegedly carrying 15 kilograms of marijuana.
Authorities got a tip over the phone that the pair had drugs hidden in their car, destined for Italy.
Police are trying to determine if a drug trafficking network is involved.
Fighting drug trafficking remains a top priority for the country’s police. Albania is a place of origin for cannabis sativa and a transit point for hard drugs.
Senior policeman injured
LUSHNJE, Jan. 26 – A senior police official in the southern city of Lushnje was injured.
The local media reported that Altin Haderi had tried to reconcile two warring groups but instead he got a pistol shot in the belly.
Haderi, 35, had been nominated as head of police in this city only a few weeks ago.
The suspect has been declared at large.
Wanted Albanian arrested in Canada
TIRANA, Jan. 27 – The US press reported that Toronto detectives had arrested a reputed Albanian mobster wanted in New Jersey for peddling everything from stolen loot to heroin.
Myfit “Mike” Dika, 45, was arrested Monday without incident on The Queensway.
A co-accused wanted by the FBI in Newark, N.J., Kujitim “Timmy” Lika, also 45, remained at large and possibly living in Canada.
A third suspect, Gazmir Gjoka, 56, was arrested in Albania last November.
The Toronto fugitive squad said the unit had been “working the case” since last August.
During a sweep last year in the U.S., FBI agents arrested 17 of 26 suspects in the Albanian mob ring. U.S. media reports about the sweep indicated FBI undercover agents were in Toronto allegedly buying drugs from the group.
The FBI alleged Dika and Lika are prominent members of the loosely knit organization that linked Europe and North America. They’re accused of planning to ship about 100 kilograms of heroin to the U.S.
SEE closer cooperation in fighting organized crime
TIRANA, Jan. 25 – Albanian Prosecutor General Ina Rama signed a memorandum of cooperation with other counterparts from the South Eastern European (SEE) countries in a meeting held in Rome, Italy.
The project of the Council of Europe and the European Union, titled PROSECO, convened prosecutor generals from all countries of southeastern Europe and the western Balkans: Albania, FYROM, Montenegro, Kosovo Croatia and Serbia.
The memorandum of understanding facilitates the procedural difficulties in joint investigations.
Regional cooperation in the fight against organized crime and other grave crimes was the focus of such a memorandum. That will facilitate and increase exchange of information among different countries and joint investigation.
Police increase arrests of weapon traffickers, theft suspects
TIRANA, Jan. 25 – A police operation codenamed Mysafiri (Guest) placed under arrest a Montenegrin accused of weapons trafficking.
Nazim Nasuf Ljikovic, 32, a resident in Bar, Montenegro, was found while passing through northern Shkodra with 10 Ekol-Special 99 pistols and 2,100 false Euro banknotes found in the car he was driving.
In another operation codenamed Mesnata (Midnight) police arrested six persons following a two-month long investigation. The group is accused of theft and blamed for many cases in the capital.
Police reported other cases of minor theft in the capital Tirana. They arrested Klodian Shezo Beba, 25, while he was trying to steal a car radio in Tirana. He was then accused of being in collaboration with another person they cosnidered as a main suspects in a series of thefts.
Extradition from neighboring Greece
TIRANA, Jan. 25 – Saimir Sulaj, 23, was extradited from neighboring Greece.
Sulaj had been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in the Fieri district court in 2008 for armed theft.
He had stopped many cars on the Mallakaster-Tepelene national road robbing money and other valuable items from the passengers.
Drug traffickers stopped
TIRANA, Jan. 25 – Hysni Ibrahim Klaiqi, 63, was arrested in the capital Tirana after being found with 636 grams of cannabis sativa at his home.
Police reported that Klaiqi had packed part of the drug in order to be transported somewhere else.
Fighting drug trafficing remains a top priority for the country’s polcie. Albania is a transit point for hard drugs but also a country of origin for cannabis.
Government to increase aid to trafficking victims
TIRANA, Jan. 25 – Interior Minister Lulzim Basha pledged Monday that the government would increase the aid to non-governmental organizations covering the consequences to human trafficking victims.
The minister met with a group of NGO representatives dealing with such victims.
The government has set fighting human trafficking as a main priority. They have also created a rehabilitation center.
The minister pledged that the government aimed at turning the country into one where human trafficking is not a serious problem, like those of the Western Europe
NGO representatives, like those of “Terre des Hommes” and “Arsis”, part of a coalition fighting child trafficking, spoke about the issues they cope with working with street children.
Albanian forgets court hearing
TIRANA, Jan. 25 – The US press reported an odd story with an Albanian immigrant who slept through his alarm and missed his final asylum hearing. Luckily he won another shot at fighting his deportation. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that courts can review an immigration board’s refusal to reopen his case.
The justices reversed a 7th Circuit decision that the order denying Agron Kucana’s motion to reopen his case was non-reviewable.
Kucana asked the court to reopen his case, explaining that he accidentally slept in.
In 2006, he had said conditions were worse in Albania.
