The State Police announced this Friday that the much-wanted Jani Alia, 47, has been arrested in Athens.
Aliaj, who was born and raised in Tepelena, is considered one of the most dangerous individuals in Albanian crime and the leader of a structured organization, which, among other things, has drug cultivation and trafficking as its main activity.
Aliaj and his criminal group are accused of many murders, but the most sensational was the one on May 1, 2016; the execution of another powerful crime figure, Elton Çiço.
The murder in question shocked the public at the time, because it happened in a public place very frequented by citizens, in the area of the former block, while Elton Çiço was drinking coffee with a police officer, a doctor and a journalist from the black chronicle. Despite the large crowd, the presence of the police officer and the journalist, Jani Aliaj entered the bar and shot Çiço in cold blood. He died on the spot, with two bullets in the head.
The history of the conflict between two criminal groups based in Tepelena is much older and has left behind many victims.
The beginning of this revenge saga between the two gangs is suspected to have been the murder of Elton Çiço's childhood friend by Jani Aliaj. But in addition to this, the police have also followed the trail of a drug trafficking deal bust in Greece, where the two groups from Tepelena have been carrying out criminal activity for almost two decades.
The first murder occurred in the village of Zhabakin, in June 2000, when Jani Alia stabbed to death E. Ballazhi, 20 years old, Elton Çiçë's childhood friend and his peer. At that time, the perpetrator of this murder was unknown and Çiço was engaged in finding him. In 2003 Çiço was arrested in Greece and confronted in prison with Jani Aliaj, both arrested for drugs. It was inside the premises of the Greek prison that Çiço attempted to kill Aliaj, but only managed to injure him in the ventilation room with an improvised knife.
A short time later, both receive a reduced sentence and are released from Greek prison, only to "meet" each other again in Albania, where several mutual assassination attempts follow.
On March 30, 2015, three people robbed and severely raped Elton Çiço's parents in Tepelena, taking a small amount of money. The robbery had occurred after some aluminum work that Çiço's parents had done at home, but in fact it was more of a message to Çiço. After identifying the 3 perpetrators, Çiço took action.
On June 10, 2015, in the area known as "Ish-këneta" in Durrës, Robert Rama, the perpetrator of the robbery in Tepelena, who was wanted by the police, was executed. However, Çiço's guilt was not proven by the police.
On May 4, 2015, the second perpetrator of the robbery, the one suspected of having transported the money to Çiço's parents' house, Elvis Imer, had a quantity of explosives placed in his rented car.
The explosive was spotted by Imer before he started the car, thus escaping the assassination attempt. But the assassination attempts against him continued, and on December 9, 2015, an explosive was placed on his brother Elton Imer, a former soldier, who lost a leg due to the explosion but fortunately escaped death.
On January 10, 2016, Jani Aliaj was attempted to be executed by Elton Çiço. Aliaj was shot several times from a moving car but not a single bullet hit him. Only a passerby was slightly injured in the incident.
The attacks against him continued in Gjirokastra, where on April 25, 2016, he was again shot by a moving car and was slightly wounded in the hand. He did not report the incident to the police, saying that he had no conflicts with anyone.
Just 1 week later, on May 1, 2016, Elton Çiço was executed with 2 bullets in a bar in Bllok. The police announced Jani Aliaj and Renato Miloš as the perpetrators of the incident.
After the murder of Elton Çiço, his friends, including Andi Mustafaraj, promised revenge.
Just 4 months after Çiço's murder, and shortly after Mustafaraj's message, on August 21 of this year, at around 3:35 PM, in a bar near the former Bus Park in Tirana, Nelgert Pata, known as a friend and collaborator of Jani Aliaj, was assassinated, but he managed to save some decorative plants that the bar had, with only a bullet wound to the ear.
The same scheme was followed in the assassination attempt on Andi Mustafaraj on October 28 at a bar in the Ish-ekspozita area. He was kept under surveillance until he got out of the car and sat in a cafe, where he was shot 3 times, leaving him wounded. The next murder would be that of 34-year-old Nelgert Pata, a friend of Jani Aliaj and a rival of Elton Çiço's group. Pata was executed in his car and was found only a few minutes later by the police. Also on the outskirts of Fier, the police found a burned-out car that is suspected to be the perpetrators.