Two people accused of attempted murder and fraud scheme extradited to Albania

Two people have been extradited from Albania, one from Athens and the other from Italy, after being accused of attempted murder and creating a fraud scheme.

Bashkim Koçi was extradited to Albania from Athens after injuring Akil Dedjan in Burrel on June 1, 2023. Meanwhile, Salvatore Cascino was extradited from Italy in connection with the VAT fraud scheme in Gjirokastra in 2023.

He is accused of having, in collaboration with 2 other Italian citizens and 2 Albanian citizens (arrested), created a system of fictitious companies for the circulation of monetary sums.

Interpol Tirana announcement:

Two citizens are being extradited to Albania: one accused of attempted murder, the other of creating a fraud scheme to obtain a VAT refund.   

Interpol Tirana, in continuation of its cooperation with counterparts for the localization, arrest and extradition of internationally wanted citizens, has developed, under the direction of the Interpol Directorate, 2 operations for the extradition of 2 citizens who were internationally wanted, specifically: 

The Albanian citizen Bashkim Koçi, 40 years old, born in Burrel, was extradited from Athens. The First Instance Court of General Jurisdiction of Dibër, with the decision dated 07.06.2023, has assigned this citizen the security measure "Arrest in prison", for the criminal offenses "Intentional murder", attempted and "Unlicensed possession and production of explosive weapons and ammunition, as it is suspected that on 01.06.2023, in the "Partizani" neighborhood, Burrel, during a conflict for weak motives with the citizen AD, he attempted to kill him, with a firearm, a pistol. From the shooting, the citizen AD was seriously injured;

-Italian citizen SC, 53 years old, was extradited from Italy. The Gjirokastra Court, with the decision dated 25.07.2023, has assigned this citizen the security measure "Arrest in prison", for the criminal offenses "Forgery of seals, stamps or forms", committed in collaboration, "Providing false information" and "Hiding income". 

This citizen was arrested in Italy, 1 year ago, during Operation "Filiali", after being declared internationally wanted as part of Operation "Scheme", conducted in Albania, in 2023, in cooperation with Italian authorities.   

Citizen SC is accused of having, in collaboration with 2 other Italian citizens and 2 Albanian citizens (arrested), created a system of fictitious companies for the circulation of monetary amounts. Through fictitious consultancy contracts, these companies, during the period December 2019 - March 2020, created a credit surplus with a company with one of the Italian citizens as administrator, for which, abusively, a VAT refund was requested. Through this scheme, in 2022, the amount of 20,765,411 lek was obtained as a VAT refund.