A mafia-style execution 100 metres from the police station: How Artan Murtaj was pursued and shot dead in Saranda
“Në Shënjestër,” the investigative programme presented by journalist Klodiana Lala, has revisited the attack that claimed the life of 44-year-old Artan Murtaj, also known as “Tani i Ruzhdiut,” on the morning of 20 September 2026 in Saranda.
Të lidhura
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Murtaj had just left a café when he was targeted by two people dressed in black and wearing motorcycle helmets. The attackers pursued him and opened fire, shooting him several times.
According to information presented on the programme, the attackers continued firing as Murtaj tried to escape. They eventually shot him in the head, inflicting fatal wounds.
Thirteen 9 mm cartridge cases were found at the scene, indicating the intensity of the gunfire. A passerby was also wounded in the attack.
Another disturbing aspect of the attack is where it happened: Murtaj was killed only about 100 metres from Saranda police station.
The attackers fled on a motorcycle after the shooting. The killing took place in a busy part of the city, a short distance from the institution responsible for ensuring public safety.
The full documentary:
A man calmly leaves the café where he has just had a coffee. It is morning, and this appears to be an ordinary routine for him in his hometown. But as he walks undisturbed along the pavement, just a few metres from the café, he stops in front of a figure dressed in motorcycle gear. The figure wears a helmet and points a pistol at him, opening fire without warning. It is about 10:00 a.m. on 20 September 202, and a mafia-style killing like this has become a familiar occurrence in Saranda. Killings of this kind have become a recurring feature of life here—or, more precisely, part of a bloody saga that has seriously disturbed the city’s peace over at least the past five years. Such is the fate of the victim seen in footage recorded by cameras in the city. Artan Murtaj, 44, makes desperate attempts to escape the bullets awaiting him just metres from the café he has left. The disturbing footage shows the difficult reality Saranda faces today.
The fight for territory, coveted coastal properties, maritime transport routes and control of narcotics has turned a city devoted to tourism into a place dominated by reprisals and gunfire. Over the past three years, Saranda has repeatedly been shaken by serious incidents, including mafia-style attacks, explosions and the mysterious disappearances of various people. Artan Murtaj’s case is one of them. After he escapes the first attempt to kill him, the gunman follows him with two weapons in his hands. A second man, also dressed head to toe in black, follows on a motorcycle.
As the footage shows, the target tries in vain, until his final breath, to escape the bullets flying behind him as he runs towards the main road in an attempt to save his life. Some of the bullets have already struck him, but he apparently still has the strength to keep going.
The attacker catches up with him at the end of the alley and, to make certain, shoots him several more times in the body and head. He then appears to climb onto the back of the motorcycle and leave the scene. A passerby is also wounded in the attack.
But why was Artan Murtaj killed, and what connects him to the bloody saga that has shaken Saranda over the past two years? The killings have also involved explosives, as in the case of Isuf Jaçaj. What is the criminal background of Artan Murtaj, also known as “Tani i Ruzhdiut”? As noted, he was killed on the morning of 20 September, just 100 metres from Saranda police station, in the area known as the former Agency. Murtaj had recently left custody after being arrested in connection with the shooting of two young men from Kamza in Saranda. It appears that this was where his death warrant was signed. But what was the incident that so quickly threw Saranda into turmoil and claimed lives?
What was Artan Murtaj’s role, and how was his involvement connected to the subsequent series of criminal and brutal events?
The latest was the killing of the 44-year-old. Thirteen 9 mm cartridge cases were found at the scene, and 20 people were questioned. According to the investigative file obtained by “Në Shënjestër,” it all appears to have begun on 17 July 2025 at a café in Saranda, where two people were wounded: Gëzim Hajdaraj and Ernest Lama. Both lived in Kamëz but were in Saranda that day. Police had previously recorded both men’s criminal activity. Just months earlier, on 8 January 2025, they had been detained for resisting police officers on Skënderbeu Street in Saranda, before being released. What made their background more concerning was their friendship with Ervis Lami, a man said to have acquired a powerful reputation in the criminal underworld. He had extended, or was seeking to extend, his influence into Saranda, where he had begun to clash with prominent figures in the city’s criminal world, including Ramadan Zoto.
The 43-year-old has a long criminal record spanning Albania and Greece. Remarkably, he has used seven first names, six patronymics and 10 surnames. But how did Ramadan Zoto and his friends, including Artan Murtaj and Klaus Jaçaj, come into conflict with the two unwelcome visitors inside a Saranda café at midday on 17 July 2025?
According to the sequence of events reconstructed by investigators using security-camera footage, everything began around midday and unfolded over just a few minutes. Ramadan Zoto and Artan Murtaj were the first to enter Kozi Bistro, a café only metres from the city stadium.
Several others followed them in and would become involved in the confrontation, which began only minutes after they took their seats.
“According to footage obtained from the café’s security cameras, at 2:57 p.m. on 17 July 2025, two people first appear inside Kozi Bistro. They were subsequently identified as Ramadan Zoto (Canaj), of medium height, somewhat stocky and with a very close-cropped haircut, and Artan Murtaj, who was tall. After entering, they sit at a table near the entrance. Ramadan Zoto sits facing the café’s windows.
“About a minute later, two more people enter: Erjon Canaj and a second man wearing a crossbody bag, identified as Klaus Jaçaj. They sit in the café’s outdoor area. Other customers, including women and children, are having lunch there. At 2:59 p.m., a person identified as K. V. also enters and sits at the table occupied by Ramadan Zoto (Canaj),” the investigative file says.
Less than a minute after the men have settled at separate tables, one group inside and the other on the terrace, the footage shows two more people entering the café.
They apparently are not strangers to Ramadan Zoto and the friends seated with him, or to those who would later help him during the confrontation, including Klaus Jaçaj and Erjon Canaj, who were on the terrace. Investigators later identified the last two arrivals, who would soon be wounded in the attack by Zoto and his group, as Gëzim Hajdaraj and Ernest Lama. Both lived in Kamëz but were in Saranda that day. Both had previously been detained for resisting police officers.
“Immediately after K. V. enters the café, two people appear behind him. One is tall and has a grey-and-black bag slung across his body. He was identified as Gëzim Hajdaraj. The second is of medium height and somewhat stocky, wears a round-brimmed cap and has a crossbody bag. He was identified as Ernest Lama. They sit at the last table in the café, in a corner of the outdoor terrace. At the table where Ramadan Zoto and Artan Murtaj are seated, K. V. leaves his bag and then goes to another part of the café not covered by the cameras,” the file says.
On seeing the two newcomers seated at a table, Zoto’s group begins to move.
The security cameras first capture Ramadan Zoto and Artan Murtaj getting up and heading towards the unwelcome visitors’ table.
The footage shows Zoto holding what appears to be a pistol. Accompanied by Murtaj, he heads straight for the table where Gëzim Hajdaraj and Ernest Lama have just sat down.
“At 2:59 p.m., Artan Murtaj and Ramadan Zoto are seen getting up from the table where they had been sitting inside the café. Zoto appears to take what looks like a pistol from his waistband and head towards the outdoor area, where Gëzim Hajdaraj and Ernest Lama are seated,” the file says.
At the same time, the cameras capture Erjon Canaj and Klaus Jaçaj, who were seated outside, also moving. Zoto reaches the table where Hajdaraj and Lama are sitting, stands in front of them and points the pistol at them.
It is not known what he says to them or what threat he makes. What can be seen is that Zoto fires first at Ernest Lama.
“At that moment, Ramadan Zoto walks over and stands in front of Gëzim Hajdaraj and Ernest Lama, pointing what appears to be a pistol at them. Ernest Lama gets to his feet and Zoto fires at him. Lama tries to escape by ducking,” the file says.
As Lama tries to evade the bullets, the footage shows Zoto turning towards the man seated with him, Gëzim Hajdaraj, who is still at the table. Zoto shoots him twice in the body, leaving him wounded on the terrace. Lama, meanwhile, tries to escape despite having been shot in the leg.
“At this point, Ramadan Zoto also points the firearm at Gëzim Hajdaraj, who gets up and tries to flee. Zoto appears to shoot him twice, leaving him collapsed on the pavement outside. He then turns back towards Ernest Lama and points the pistol at him. Lama gets up and, supporting himself on one leg, attempts to leave,” the file says.
Although Zoto is the one confronting and shooting at the two men, other members of his group also become involved. Artan Murtaj, who had initially been sitting at the same table as Zoto, stands out.
“After accompanying Ramadan Zoto to the table where the two unwelcome men were sitting and witnessing them being shot, Murtaj does not stop there. He physically attacks one of them, even though the man has been wounded in the leg. The footage shows Murtaj punching Ernest Lama in the head and kicking him from behind as Lama tries to get away from the bullets being fired by Zoto.
“While Ramadan Zoto is shooting at the two men at the table, Erjon Canaj and Artan Murtaj approach him.
“After seeing Ernest Lama leave the café, Murtaj follows him. When he catches up, he punches him in the back of the head and then kicks him in the buttocks before disappearing from the cameras’ view.” Alongside Murtaj, two other friends of Zoto, Erjon Canaj and Klaus Jaçaj, also appear active in the incident. Jaçaj appears to have arrived at the café armed: during the confrontation, he is seen holding a hand at the back of his trousers. He is not seen drawing a weapon, however.
“At this point, Erjon Canaj and Klaus Jaçaj, who keeps his hand at the back of his trousers throughout, approach Ramadan Zoto. Jaçaj is seen taking hold of Zoto, who quickly goes inside the café, towards the toilets or storage rooms where K. V. had previously gone. They remain there briefly, then hurry out of the café. Zoto can be seen holding a pistol throughout.
“He first passes the side of the café where Gëzim Hajdaraj is lying. Still holding the weapon, he continues on foot along the pavement towards the stadium until he disappears from the cameras’ view. Klaus Jaçaj and Artan Murtaj do the same. Erjon Canaj puts on his flip-flops inside the café, then leaves and walks in the same direction as Zoto, Murtaj and Jaçaj,” the file says.
Wounded at the scene while his friend Ernest Lama has managed to get some distance from the café, Gëzim Hajdaraj is seen trying to seek help. The gunman and the others involved have hurried away—or, more accurately, fled.
“After the group involved in the confrontation leaves the café, Gëzim Hajdaraj tries to move and crawls towards the pavement outside Kozi Bistro. At 3:00 p.m., two people approach in the outdoor area: a man aged about 30 and a woman aged between 50 and 60. They go over to Hajdaraj, who remains lying on the pavement.
“Hajdaraj removes his crossbody bag and gives it first to the woman, who then gives it to the man accompanying her. The man takes it inside and leaves it on a tray on the counter,” the file says.
The man who placed the wounded man’s bag on the counter was the café’s waiter. The woman who first helped him was an employee at the café where the shooting took place and the owner’s mother. At about the same time, the security cameras capture K. V. leaving the toilet or storage area and initially heading towards the city stadium.
He then returns to the café, retrieves the bag he had left at the table where he had earlier sat with Ramadan Zoto, and leaves again. K. V.’s role in the incident remains unclear, although his movements before and after it were suspicious. Questioned about what she knew, the café employee who first helped Gëzim Hajdaraj said she knew neither those responsible nor the wounded men.
“I was near the café, where the pizzeria and kitchen are, when I saw a person lying on the ground. He told me to call an ambulance and to take the bag he had with him. I took the bag and gave it to the waiter, Angjelo Marga, who left it on the counter, where it was found. I do not know the wounded man or those who wounded him, as I was some distance away,” said Agathulla Gurma.
The café waiter gave investigators the same account. He described what happened over just two minutes, from the men’s arrival to the gunshot.
It happened so quickly that he had not even taken the orders of those who became involved in the confrontation. Graphic:
“I work as a waiter at Kozi Bistro. First, I want to clarify that two people sat down in the café and I had not yet taken their order. I was inside dealing with orders, while the other waiter was in the pizzeria area. Then I heard a shout and a gunshot. The bartender and I immediately went into the kitchen and locked the door from the inside.
“While we were in the kitchen, we heard some people trying to open the toilet door. After a few minutes, when we no longer heard any noise, we came out and saw a wounded person lying on the ground at the café entrance. I brought some bottles of water, and we waited for the ambulance. As for the wounded man’s bag, I do not know whether I or Agathulla Gurma, the café owner’s mother, put it on the counter, because I was traumatised by what had happened,” said Angjelo Marga.
Officers from Saranda police station were the first to receive the report of the crime and arrive at the scene. They immediately carried out a full examination, finding spent cartridge cases and bloodstains belonging to those involved in the confrontation, specifically Gëzim Hajdaraj and Ernest Lama.
“On 17 July 2025, Saranda Police’s operations room received a report that a person had been shot at Kozi Bistro, near the roundabout by the stadium in Neighbourhood No. 4. He was subsequently taken to the emergency department of Petro Nako Hospital in Saranda for medical treatment.
“Upon receiving the report, an investigative team was formed and the first steps were taken to clarify the incident. An examination of the scene found what appeared to be bloodstains on the pavement outside, on the southern side, 1.9 metres from the café. A spent cartridge case resembling that of a live round was also found on the floor on the café’s southern side.
“Two other rounds were found during the examination of the scene and seized as evidence.” The reason one of the wounded men, Gëzim Hajdaraj, took care to remove his crossbody bag and ask a café employee to put it somewhere was what it contained.
An examination revealed a pistol inside the bag.
That meant the other group involved in the confrontation, like the attackers, had also arrived at the café armed.
“Inside the café, near the espresso machine, a ‘Luis Vutton’ shoulder bag was found. Inside was a pistol marked ‘Pietro Beretta Gondone VT’ Made in Italy’. Its magazine contained nine unfired pistol rounds.
“The bag also contained an identity card bearing the name Gëzim Hajdaraj and a laminated card bearing the name Gëzim Muja.” Immediately after the incident, police issued wanted notices for those believed responsible for and involved in the shooting: Ramadan Zoto, Klaus Jaçaj, Artan Murtaj and Erjon Canaj.
Zoto was arrested in Korçë on 22 August 2025, about a month after the incident.
He claimed he had felt threatened and that the incident had been unexpected, not premeditated. According to his defence, it happened at a café where Zoto was sitting with his wife and young children. The wounded men had come to Saranda and sat in the same café as his family, openly threatening him with a weapon. His defence therefore described his actions as self-defence rather than a criminal initiative.
For that reason, Zoto’s defence asked that the offence not be classified as attempted murder, calling the charge hasty, unsupported and deliberately biased on the prosecution’s part.
“Ramadan Zoto claims that the confrontation arose from a long-running dispute over coastal areas previously held by him and his family. This is documented by numerous complaints he and his relatives filed with the judicial authorities. It shows that he was not the instigator of the violence, but a party to a dispute that escalated because the institutions failed to resolve it,” the file says.
Although Zoto was arrested a month later and said the cause was a dispute over coastal property, that did not calm the situation. What followed appears to have been a campaign of retaliation by the wounded men’s side.
They would begin a fierce campaign of revenge against everyone who had taken part in the incident, including those who assisted the gunman. First came the killing of Isuf Jaçaj, the father of Klaus Jaçaj, who had been at the café with Zoto that day and is seen approaching him while he shoots Gëzim Hajdaraj and Ernest Lama.
After the incident, Isuf Jaçaj had tried to persuade his son to surrender to police, as shown by messages he sent Klaus while he was on the run.
Phone call:
Isuf Jaçaj calls his son, Klaus Jaçaj. “You need to turn yourself in to the police for helping the perpetrator. Otherwise, I will come and find where you are hiding and hand you over to the police myself. You have wounded two young men. Do you understand that…”
While Klaus Jaçaj was on the run, four days after the armed confrontation at Kozi Bistro in Saranda, his parked car was blown up in a neighbourhood of the city on 22 July 2025. A person disguised with a silicone mask placed explosives on the vehicle, completely destroying it. It was a clear message that Klaus was now a target of the rival group.
Saranda Police:
“On 21 July 2025, at around 11:50 p.m., an explosive device is suspected to have detonated on a vehicle in Neighbourhood No. 3, Saranda, causing only material damage. The vehicle belongs to Klaus Jaçaj, 31, who is wanted for ‘assisting the perpetrator of a crime’ in connection with the incident of 17 July 2025, in which two people sustained gunshot wounds.”
While Klaus Jaçaj was on the run, a threatening message had also been sent to him or his relatives, demanding that he hand over Ramadan Zoto, also known by the surname Canaj, who had shot the two men.
The message apparently came from people close to those wounded at Kozi Bistro.
The message:
“Hand over Ramadan Canaj, or we will kill you and your relatives…” Klaus Jaçaj was arrested by Saranda police on 24 July, a week after taking part in the armed confrontation at Kozi Bistro. Artan Murtaj, meanwhile, had chosen to surrender to police on 19 July 2025, two days after the incident. An arrest warrant was issued for him that day because there were reasonable grounds to believe he might flee.
Saranda Police:
“At 11:30 p.m. on 19 July 2025, judicial police executed the prosecutor’s arrest warrant for Artan Murtaj, suspected of ‘failure to report a crime’ and ‘assisting the perpetrator of a crime’. The evidence provides reasonable grounds to suspect that Artan Murtaj and Klaus Jaçaj helped those suspected of committing the offence to escape and hide so they could evade investigators and police.” The evidence also indicates that Jaçaj was not merely at Kozi Bistro to accompany Zoto: he helped Zoto, the gunman, hide in his home.
He then helped him travel to Korçë. The opposing group involved in the confrontation apparently also had this information.
After blowing up Klaus Jaçaj’s car, they did not stop. Several months later, they are suspected of carrying out a mafia-style killing of his father, Isuf Jaçaj, by placing explosives in his car. That happened on 5 October 2025. In recent years, Isuf Jaçaj had worked in tourism, transporting visitors by speedboat to destinations along the Saranda coast.
The killing of Isuf Jaçaj: On the night of 5 October, a car caught fire on a street in Saranda, trapping a man inside. He was Klaus Jaçaj’s father, 58-year-old Isuf Jaçaj, who did not survive. The explosion killed him instantly. Experts confirmed that a substantial amount of explosives had been placed beneath the car. It was a carefully planned attack intended to kill him immediately. This act of revenge appears to have been only the beginning of a bloody sequence that would continue.
A month after the brutal killing of Klaus Jaçaj’s father, Isuf, unidentified people set fire to Bumble Bee, a café in Ksamil owned by Ramadan Zoto.
The café was completely destroyed. His brother, Erjon Canaj, remained on the run following the armed confrontation at the café on 17 July 2025.
The café fire
On the night of 29 November 2025, the wooden Bumble Bee café in Ksamil, owned by Ramadan Zoto (Cane), was completely destroyed by fire. There are strong suspicions that it was deliberately set as a message to Ramadan Cane, who was by then in prison. As noted, Greek police records list Ramadan Zoto under seven first names, six patronymics and 10 surnames.
He also had an extensive criminal history dating back to 2005. In April of that year, the man known as “Cania of Saranda” is said to have killed 51-year-old Pushkin Kuspa in Athens in an act of revenge. Three years later, on 31 January 2008, he exchanged gunfire with Greek police during an attempt to arrest him. He was arrested a month later, at the end of February that year.
Zoto also has a record of armed robbery in Greece. After leaving prison, Greek police attempted to stop him on Patisia Street in Athens in May 2019 while he was driving a Smart car. Zoto accelerated away until the vehicle crashed. He was then pursued and arrested with another Albanian. Police found a pistol, a knife and 5 grams of cocaine.
The car had false licence plates and had been reported stolen on 11 October 2018 in Notia Proastia. His brother, 35-year-old Erjon Canaj, was also declared wanted. Zoto’s long criminal history appears to have followed him back to Saranda, where he became involved in several incidents. In December 2022, he was accused of assaulting a security guard at Saranda hospital. In February 2024, he was arrested at his home with two pistols, but Saranda Court acquitted him on 29 April 2025. Then came his central role in the incident of 17 July 2025, when he shot and wounded Gëzim Hajdaraj and Ernest Lama. According to police, those two men were also members of a dangerous criminal group. The group would show its ruthlessness through the most recent killing: that of Artan Murtaj, also known as “Tani i Ruzhdiut.”
Murtaj was killed in Saranda on 20 September 2026. He is believed to have been an important member of the group led by Ramazan Zoto, also known as Ramadan Canaj and “Cania of Saranda.”
Police regard Zoto as highly dangerous, with a substantial criminal record. The series of incidents began with the armed confrontation on 17 July 2025, when he shot and wounded Gëzim Hajdaraj and Ernest Lama. That is also believed to have marked the beginning of attacks against Ramadan Cane’s group. Numerous attacks and killings have followed, and they may not end there.
Police suspect the attacks are being carried out by a powerful criminal group based in Tirana.
Investigative file
One line of police inquiry is that the attacks on Cane’s group originate in Tirana. Suspicion centres on a person with a criminal record who has grown more powerful in recent years. In terms of financial resources, connections and capacity for violence, law enforcement authorities believe he has even surpassed Vis Martinaj, who disappeared in August 2022. But although Saranda may seem quiet after the tourist season, it remains a troubled city. From time to time, competing interests or deals gone wrong between local gangs and those arriving from outside remind us how fragile peace is in this part of Albania.
That peace appears to have been lost for good, and the disruption has brought the city’s underground conflicts into the open. Saranda will struggle to recover for as long as organised crime is more powerful and better organised than the state itself./BW
