The threads from Albania that revealed the laundering of international drug trafficking money

2024-12-18 20:05:00, Kronika CNA

The threads from Albania that revealed the laundering of international drug

The operation took place in Spain

Europol announced on Wednesday the crackdown on a criminal network that operated as an underground bank to circulate and launder the proceeds of large-scale drug trafficking and other serious crimes. The attack on the network came thanks to the activities of law enforcement agencies in 6 different countries, supported by Europol, and especially from the results of two important investigations finalized some time ago with the "Gorgon" operations, carried out by the Special Prosecutor's Office against Crime organized and Corruption, in Albania and that "Whitewall", carried out in Spain, by the Guardia Civil. Europol announced that at least 9 people were arrested, while 25 million euros in cryptocurrencies, 35 thousand euros in cash and documents, mobile phones, valuables (gold, luxury goods) were seized.

Operation "Gorgon" in Albania

The operation in Albania, carried out on July 31, had as its objective the attack on the organization of the brothers Elbasani Franc and Hajdar Çopja, suspected of a series of murders, attempted murders, as well as the theft of 10 million euros on the Rinas airport runway in 2019 Out of 33 arrest warrants, 13 were executed in the country while two others were arrested earlier abroad. The rest of the characters had long since left Albania.

In its announcement of the case, the Special Prosecutor's Office focused on the activity of the brothers, keeping hidden a fact that the Europol communique revealed at the time.

According to the European organization of the rule of law, in the operation carried out by the Special Prosecutor's Office, " an important figure in money laundering based in Tirana was arrested, who has offered his services to various high-level criminal groups, including on the international level, in murder, corruption and drug trafficking on a large scale ".

As it was later learned, among those arrested were the owners of a currency exchange point in the center of Tirana, Bashkim Lika and Maklen Mici, who are suspected of providing financial services to the organization of the Çopja brothers. The analysis of the encrypted SKY/ECC applications revealed that Mici had moved several million euros of Franc Chopje. But in statements to the media, the lawyers of the two arrested have denied the accusations.

In today's announcement by Europol, it is explained in this case that the arrested in Albania " was facilitating the transfer of large sums of money through cryptocurrencies. This method has been used not only by the Albanian criminal world, but also by other criminal organizations and constitutes a new approach to money laundering .

Investigations into this network began in 2021, when, as part of investigations into drug trafficking, the Spanish police, during a search of an apartment, found handwritten notes on 5 euro banknotes that provided information on who was coordinating and facilitated the financial aspect of cocaine trafficking.

The Spanish police submitted this information to Europol, which checked it with the data collected in the cases of encrypted systems "EncroChat" and "Sky". As a result, Europol explains, a British national was identified as a coordinator providing underground banking services to a criminal network based in southern Spain, which was under the supervision of a criminal network operating from Dubai.

After his arrest on September 12, 2022, the analysis of extensive data to reveal the criminal network and the roles of its members led to an action on November 4, 2024 in Malaga, Spain, with the participation of law enforcement authorities of Belgian, Bulgarian, Dutch and United States law.

According to Europol, the two operations "Gorgon" and "Whitewall" revealed many aspects of organized crime, with secret transfers and money laundering which function not only as financial crimes in themselves, but also as services for those who are involved in drug trafficking, paid murders and arms trafficking./ VOA