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VICE: Organized crime hinders Albania's EU membership

2023-02-16 22:00:36Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

VICE: Organized crime hinders Albania's EU membership

The well-known Canadian-American portal, VICE, has dedicated an article to the Albanian gangs that control the country through a network of illegal cameras. They have commented on the explosions with tritol in the policemen's apartments and the cameras on the streets. Vice points out that the cameras were used remotely to monitor the movements of police, gang operatives and rival groups, as well as for police operations.

The portal adds that the Albanian mafia has been able to control most of the cannabis and heroin trade in Europe and plays an important role in the trafficking of cocaine from South America to Europe and its sale in the United Kingdom.

"A situation that is considered as a possible obstacle for the country's long-term aspirations to join the EU," the media points out.

By Mitchell Prothero, VICE

A bomb campaign targeting police officials in a northern Albanian city led to the discovery of hundreds of illegally installed CCTV cameras, which the government claims are operated by local mafia clans.

Police discovered a network of cameras set up and used by gangs suspected of being involved in a high-profile bomb attack on the home of a regional police chief. The explosive device exploded outside the apartment of Pëllumb Shpati, the chief of police in the northwestern city of Shkodra, in the early hours of the morning of January 13. A special investigation team was set up to find out who orchestrated the attack, although no arrests have yet been made.

The police found 59 CCTV cameras in Shkodër alone. This led to authorities across the country seizing more than 500 cameras. Most of them were connected to cellphones and were found in Tirana, the Albanian capital, according to the national police.

The cameras were used remotely to monitor the movements of police, gang operatives and rival groups, as well as for police operations.

"Police dismantled cameras placed on electric poles, in the streets, to collect information for criminal purposes," Albanian police said in a statement to the Financial Times on Tuesday. "The cameras installed by persons or criminal groups were also intended to receive information about the movements of the police."

Setting up a network of road surveillance through CCTV cameras is a tactic that has been used by Albania's significant organized crime community to monitor law enforcement and secure their areas of control for several years.

"Organized crime in Albania has reached high levels of sophistication and camouflage," Rudina Hajdari, chairwoman of the EU Integration Committee and former member of parliament, told VICE. "What was made public with the camera system used by gangsters has been around for a long time, but the police have turned a blind eye because most criminal groups have close ties to the government... through money laundering in construction or forms different types of investment,' says Hajdari.

The case further exposes the control that organized crime groups have over the small country. Handari said the relationship between government officials and organized crime groups threatens the Balkan country's developing democratic political system because of growing threats and intimidation against critics.

"Cameras are only one aspect, but the control that organized crime has over the political process today is threatening our fragile democracy," Hajdari said. "Criminal organizations assist in electoral processes, finance political campaigns," she said, as well as threaten opposition figures on behalf of corrupt officials and their mafia patrons.

The Albanian mafia controls most of the cannabis and heroin trade in Europe, according to EU reports, and plays an important role in the trafficking of cocaine from South America to Europe and its sale in the United Kingdom. Usually organized around clans and family groups, they link the country to a large Albanian diaspora across Western Europe, a situation seen as a potential obstacle to the country's long-standing aspirations to join the EU.

After the capture of the cameras, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said: "The fact that the police acted on this issue, a problem for decades, means that the government is inclined and focused on the fight against organized crime."


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