TIRANA, May 21 – Albanian journalist Jetmir Olldashi publicly accepted on Saturday he was the author behind the surveyed conversation of Agron Xhafaj – brother of the country’s Minister of Interior Fatmir Xhafaj – and Albert Veliu, who asked Agron to help him traffic a cannabis amount to neighboring Italy.
Olldashi said the wiretap of Agron and Veliu was part of an investigation he was conducting on Vlora’s drug trafficking scene.
Right after Olldashi went public, the country’s opposition Democratic Party gave a press conference repeating accusations against Prime Minister Edi Rama and minister Xhafaj that they are trying to hide and protect Agron’s continued criminal activity.
During his ‘confession,’ Olldashi said he had contacted Veliu as a person who could help him penetrate Vlora’s drug trafficking scene.
Veliu directed Olldashi to Agron’s bar in Vlora – as the two men were former collaborators trafficking drugs in Italy back in 2002 – where he had sat waiting for Agron while Olldashi sat in a bar across the street.
Unlike Veliu’s confession on Friday, who said he was unaware someone was surveying him and Agron, Olldashi said on Saturday he’d placed a recording device on Veliu during all his meetings with Agron.
“Albert came right after his meeting with Agron and I took the recording device I had placed on him. From the conversation that has now become public one can hear Albert Veliu asking Agron Xhafaj help in ensuring and trafficking a cannabis amount toward Italy and Agron Xhafaj directed him to someone that would get the job done,” Olldashi said.
According to Olldashi, despite recently frequent police reports stating crackdown on criminal groups has significantly increased, the drug situation in Vlora is out of control and asking for cannabis is part of normality in the Southern town.
In the context of the rattled political scene the Xhafaj affair has caused and the polemics between government and opposition concerning the validity of the wiretap – which the government claims is fake – Olldashi said he went to the DP to publish his investigation as the only political force in the country which could protect his professional and personal safety and also address the problem of criminality.
After his public statement, Olldashi added he’d show his investigative work on Albanian TV, while DP leader Lulzim Basha immediately held a press conference of his own.
“This is the truth, not Fatmir Xhafaj’s lies, neither Edi Rama’s criminal scams. Edi Rama lied fervently yesterday pretending he did the wiretap expertise in Surrel and that it turned to be false,” Basha said.
