The Embassy of the United States of America in Tirana shared a short video from the meeting of the Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Narcotics, Todd Robinson, with SPAK leaders and political representatives.
Officially, the message conveyed by the Embassy is to reinforce US support for special prosecutors and judges in their fight against high-level corruption and organized crime.
Unofficially, the American request to the special prosecutor has been more concrete and direct.
Washington asks SPAK to be more proactive and concrete in investigating and tracking the money of drug trafficking groups, which are suspected to be laundered in the construction sector in Albania.
Tower money has long raised concerns among international partners.
The American request is visually confirmed by the very presence of an official of the narcotics bureau in DASH, at a time when his own superior, Antony Blinken, a few days ago participated in an anti-money laundering conference in Vienna.
Investigation of the source of money of the towers and residences in the coastal areas has been requested mainly by the European partners of Albania.
VoxNews.al is aware of at least two cases, when the Belgian and Dutch authorities have submitted requests for the investigation of some resorts and palaces in the coastal area of Lezha and Shkodra, which are suspected to have been established by the activity of Albanian cocaine trafficking groups in these two countries.
But this may be the first time that such a request has come from the Americans, which suggests that Albanian organized crime money, in addition to distorting the local economy through damaging fair competition, is becoming a problem across the Atlantic as well.
©CopyrightVoxNews
This article is exclusive to VoxNews, it is copyrighted according to Law No. 35/2016, "On copyright and related rights". The article can be republished by other media only by citing VoxNews and placing the source link at the end, otherwise any violator will be held responsible according to Article 178 of Law No. 35/2016.