According to the EU’s reaction, Gashi’s mandate should focus on ensuring integrity and accountability in the prosecutorial system, as well as on cracking down on high-level corruption and organized crime.

On Tuesday, the acting president, Albulena Haxhiu, signed the decree appointing Zejnullah Gashi as chief prosecutor.

Gashi officially assumed the position today, for a 7-year term.

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Bylykbashi also laid out the links between crime, corruption, and the state. He cited the Balluku case as well as the AKSHI file, where crime has extended into public procurement as well.

Meanwhile, Bylykbashi also mentioned the Aruba file, where the state is placed at the service of transnational crime in money laundering.

Bylykbashi: 19 criminals in parliament. The model was the use of criminals in elections. It has become more sophisticated, while the decriminalization law is also being anesthetized. Convicted individuals are holding on to their mandates. Crime is choosing candidates and bringing them into parliament. We are trying to move toward the voters’ right through direct voting. I prefer the majoritarian list. And the problem I have is that if there is no intervention to cut off the hands of corruption, crime, and the oligarchs, we will see more deputies of this kind. Third powers that would want to have their own megaphone in parliament. They will finance it and they will have it. Through direct voting.

You have a role in this aspect. If it were accidental, it would not be a problem. When they are organized, they become a problem. I understand that this is a heavy burden for SPAK. In the end, the volume of crime, galloping state corruption, and everything happening around us is too great for this filter. We have organized state corruption. The Balluku case is perfect. We have organized crime that exists regardless of the state, and it is also transnational.

The Albanian mafia is the second most dangerous in Europe. They have gone from soldiers to protagonists. Anti-mafia investigation leaders have told me, we do not trust working with the Albanian authorities. I say this responsibly. Those who were speaking were saying something very credible. Information is leaking. We also have crime and organized corruption in elections. Perfect. In Durrës, we have the model. One by one, it produces the moment when the state, through corrupted elections, is used so that the elections are captured. Organized crime alongside the state for money laundering. The Aruba case. We are turning Albania into Albanian Files, all of them are like lights switched on at night that attract the moths of corruption. It makes your work easier.

Here we have Tirana, we are astonishing everyone. A European Parliament fact-finding mission, and we also have organized crime in public procurement. AKSHI. You still have it under investigation. The main gentlemen have already begun. We have reached a stage where we are no longer separating crime from the state. They no longer understand where the evil is coming from. Are we at the criminalization of the state or the nationalization of crime? American Congressman Joe Wilson has proposed an amendment that calls, in a report there through an amendment, for reporting on drug trafficking and corruption in Albania. The Secretary will present Congress with a classified report on the extent of drug trafficking in Albania and the involvement of the state in facilitating it.

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The searches were carried out by decision of the GJKKO, while sources for Albeu.com indicate that during the operation the businessman’s mobile phone was also seized, which is expected to be subject to further verification by investigators.

This development comes as a follow-up to SPAK’s mega-operation, which hit three suspected criminal groups, which according to investigations are suspected of having operated in the field of international cocaine trafficking and money laundering. At the center of the file are the groups linked to Artur Shehu, Artur Koçeku, also known as Luçiano Koçeku, and Alfredo Hamzai.

According to the investigative materials, the proceeds from drug trafficking are suspected of having been channeled into the construction sector, through dubious investments and connections with various businessmen. The file mentions the names of Ilir Shtufi and Orest Sota, as persons through whom it is suspected that money with criminal sources was invested in construction projects.

The investigations have also highlighted suspicions of investments in the Green Coast project in Palasë, one of the most popular resorts on the Albanian coast, owned by businessman Samir Mane.

Mane’s name is mentioned in the SPAK investigative materials, while the search conducted by the BKH in his apartment and offices is seen as an important move by the investigators to verify connections, communications and materials that may be of value to the file.

Sources close to the investigation confirm that during the searches, various equipment and materials were seized, which will be analyzed by SPAK and BKH. The businessman’s mobile phone is one of the material evidences taken for examination, in order to verify communications and contacts that may be related to the case under investigation.

Up to this stage, there has been no public reaction from Samir Mane about the searches carried out at his villa and offices, while SPAK has not yet issued a detailed official announcement about his role in this file.

The searches against one of the biggest business names in Albania further expand the scope of SPAK’s investigations, shifting the focus from criminal drug trafficking groups to sectors where millions of euros derived from criminal activity are suspected of being laundered. /albeu.com/

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