Albanian man linked to an alleged arms scandal found dead

TIRANA, Sep 14 – Kosta Trebicka, the Albanian businessman who told a U.S. newspaper of an alleged arms scandal of a Miami Beach man defrauding the Pentagon, was found dead Friday in southeastern Albania, police said.
Trebicka, 50, was found by farmer near the village of Voskopoja, Korca district, 200 kilometers southeast of capital Tirana, in an alleged car accident, police spokesman Klodian Branko said, adding the investigating team had left on a helicopter. A hunting rifle was also found near him.
In a story published from the New York Times earlier this year Trebicka, 50, reported of a phone conversation with Efraim Diveroli, the 22-year old U.S. businessman accused of defrauding the Pentagon under a contract he had to supply ammunition to forces in Afghanistan.
Prosecutors say Diveroli’s company, AEY Inc., provided banned Chinese-made ammunition to forces in Afghanistan and claimed it came from Albania.
Diveroli remains free on bail.
Trebicka was contacted to pack Albanian ammunition to be sent to Afghanistan.
The alleged scandal erupted after a series of explosions at an ammunition disposal factory near Tirana in March killed 26 people and injured 300.
Diveroli was partner of the Albanian company disposing of the ammunition.
Trebicka was to be the key witness in Albania’s investigation into the affair.
The Albanian prosecutor office has also launched an investigation into alleged illegal weapon traffic.
About 100,000 tons of excess ammunition, mostly Russian and Chinese artillery shells made in the 1960s or earlier, are stored in old army depots across formerly communist Albania.
Albania’s defense minister and army chief were both replaced after the disaster.
A Defense Ministry official was charged with murder, along with Mihal Delijorgji, owner of the Alb Demil ammunition disposal company, and his manager, Dritan Minxholli.
Television pictures showed Trebicka, his head covered in blood, sprawled on his back on a dirt road in a remote area of eastern Albania, where he had been hunting. His 4xwheel drive car was nearby, and appeared to be damaged.
“We have identified the corpse of citizen Kosta Trebicka,” Interior Minister Bujar Nishani told a late evening news conference. “We shall make public the conclusions of experts as soon as they reach them,” he added.
Opposition leaders said the death looked suspicious.
Trebicka was involved in repackaging ageing Chinese ammunition that was being sold from Albania to AEY Inc, a U.S. firm contracted by the Pentagon to supply the Afghan army.
He turned whistleblower after the Albanian defense ministry removed him from the contract and appointed another company in his place.
It was at this second company’s plant in Gerdec, near Tirana, that 26 people were killed in an explosion of artillery shells in March.
“We must know as soon as possible whether Kosta Trebicka died accidentally or was killed by criminals that have started hunting the people that know a lot about the Gerdec blast,” the main opposition Socialist Party leader Edi Rama said.
A day after the accident police reported that preliminary conclusion from the investigation had shown Trebicka’s death was caused from the car accident.
Prosecutor general’s office is continuing the investigation and has yet to declare any reason for the death.
U.S. police experts were asked by the prosecutor general to assist in the investigation. Other experts are also expected to arrive from the States.