Former FM Meta aide gets six years on U.S. charges

TIRANA, July 30 – Almir Rrapo, former top aide to Albania’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, was sentenced to six years imprisonment for “extraordinarily heinous” crimes with a Staten Island drug gang made before taking the post in Tirana.
Rrapo cooperated with the authorities after being extradited to the United States to face charges in a deadly 2005 drive-by shooting in Queens, a violent kidnapping and other offenses.
The leaders of his former gang, brothers Bruno and Saimir Krasniqi, were both sentenced to life behind bars after Rrapo’s testimony helped convict them in Manhattan federal court last year.
Defense lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman called Rrapo, 29, “a shining example of what a cooperator should be,” noting that “he ran away from these people because he had enough,” then turned his life around.
The 29-year-old old was arrested in Tirana while applying for a US visa. In the next six months, Rrapo made everything possible to avoid extradition.
The former official of the Foreign Ministry was handed over to the US authorities based on the only extradition agreement that both countries have since the ’30s, so that Rrapo could face trial for the accusations regarding the so called “Krasniqi Gang” and the charges for a murder in Queens, a violent kidnapping and others.
The Rrapo case troubled the judiciary but it also showed how the trials are delayed in our country. The Court of First Degree and the Court of Appeal said “yes” to Rrapo’s extradition to the US, but a delayed decision of the Supreme Court returned the case for a review exactly when Rrapo was extradited and he wasn’t in Albania anymore.
The Court of First Degree was finally able to give the extradition order while Rrapo was already being trialed in America and had decided to cooperate with justice.
Almir Rrapo testified against the two Krasniqi brothers which caused their arrest.
The testimony of Almir Rrapo helped the US authorities not only to find the killer, but also to destroy an international drug traffic led by the Krasniqi brothers, a traffic that was allegedly moving one billion USD.
FBI and DEA were after this organization for years, but they were unable to verify the traffic for which Rrapo’s testimony resulted decisive.