Sources at the Italian Embassy in Tirana confirm that Italy and Albania continue to exchange information about their respective drug trafficking investigations. In recent days, two prosecutors from two different Italians prosecution offices have held special meetings with Albanian prosecutors in Tirana.
The same sources also confirm that the arrest of deputy police chief Festim Lelaj in Fier in connection with the trafficking of 2.5 tons of cannabis from the port of Durrës to Ancona in January 13, 2017 was the result of an Italian investigation.
In an declaration of December 6, 2017, the Albanian police stated that it didn’t possess any information about the 2.5 tons of drugs, and only learned about the shipment after it was seized by the Italians in January.
However, our sources claim that the Italian police had warned the Albanian police before the truck arrived in Ancona, but that the latter had declared that they had check the truck and that is was empty, which turned out to be untrue.
