Police intensify operations, arrests

TIRANA, Dec. 2 – Three persons were arrested Saturday for smuggling cows from neighboring Macedonia. The three, who were from the district of Bulqiza, were stopped with two trucks containing some 42 calves as they entered the country from Diber e Madhe in Macedonia.
Sunday, police arrested Beard Gerbi, alias Ardi Gerbaj, resident of Tirana, for a murder he had committed in Florida, U.S. in May of 2005. Following the agreement between the two countries, Gerbaj will be extradited to Florida to face justice.
Also on Sunday, police arrested four persons who were suspected of attempted murder. After a quarrel, the four persons had tried to kill another person with knives. Two other persons were in serious condition at the military hospital in Tirana.
Police arrested Kreshnik Halilaj, 25, on Saturday, under suspicion of drug trafficking.
Two other persons, residents of the northern town of Lac, were arrested on the same day for falsifying documents.
Edmond Muja, 27, resident of Kukes, was extradited from Switzerland after he had been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for killing two brothers in March 2001. When he was arrested police, found 25 grams of heroin and a false Danish passport with the name Albin Pjetri in his possession.
In collaboration with Interpol Tirana, the Italian Interpol in Rome arrested Skender Dine, 39, in Florence on Tuesday. Dine was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for killing a woman in 1991 in Vlora. He lived in Italy with false documents.
In an operation that was broadcast by the Top Channel private television station, whose team happened to be near the place, police arrested two persons on Tuesday afternoon on the road between Lushnja and Fier. The two were suspected of drug trafficking. Police found 100 grams of cocaine in their Mercedes.
On Wednesday, police arrested Arben Lata, 34, as a suspect in the murder of Ylli Uka in November of this year in the village of Paskuqan, near Tirana. It is suspected that Lata killed Uka after a quarrel.