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Journalist Klodiana Lala has stated that SPAK's last two operations against money laundering have only uncovered a portion of the assets created by criminal groups, while investigations continue to identify other investments in Albania and abroad.
Invited to the show "The Unexposed" on MCN TV, Lala stated that the seizures carried out against Artur Shehu's group and Shpëtim Aliu's organization constitute only the "tip of the iceberg", while the bulk of the criminal capital still remains to be documented.
" The facts that SPAK carried out two raids on criminal groups for money laundering and property alienation are well known. One was for Artur Shehu's group, where assets worth almost half a billion euros were seized. There was a massive seizure of resorts, blocking of building permits, luxury villas and high-rise buildings that turned out to have been built with drug money. In the second case, for Shpëtim Ali's organization, around 150 million euros of assets were seized. If you look at these files, SPAK has only seized the tip of the iceberg ," said Lala.
The journalist emphasized that investigations have uncovered the circulation of millions of euros by criminal organizations, while it still remains unclear where a significant portion of the assets created by international cocaine trafficking are located.
" The Shpëtim Aliu organization, through Eldi Dizdari, had transferred 8 million euros to Ecuador in just three weeks. He was ready to take up to 10 tons of cocaine out of European ports. For the five shipments seized so far alone, the prosecution claims that the group has laundered around 30 million euros. There is still no complete data on other assets inside and outside the country or in cryptocurrencies and this remains a challenge for the authorities ," she said.
According to Lala, many of the key figures of these organizations result in little or no assets being seized in Albania, which indicates that investigations must continue.
" Armando Pacani is considered one of the main players, but the Special Prosecution Office still has no concrete results on his assets, as the activity was mainly abroad. Eldi Dizdari results with negligible assets in relation to the criminal activity he had, while Dritan Gjika has almost no assets seized in Albania. The question is whether there are other assets that are being investigated. SPAK says that money laundering investigations continue ," the journalist stated.
In the end, Lala said that these files have confirmed with documentary evidence what has been denounced for years by investigative journalists, that drug trafficking money has been invested in the construction sector and not only.
" We have only seen the tip of the iceberg, but these files have proven that the money from the traffic was invested in towers, resorts, property purchases and asset transfers. Millions were also invested in vote buying. There are communication platforms that exist even for the period before 2021 and through them the financing of the elections can also be investigated. This would prove what journalists have been saying for years, but which until now had no documentary basis ," said Lala.
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