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Telegraph
2 days ago
- Telegraph
The rapid downfall of Albania's most-feared drug gang
The Cela-Çopja clan was one of Europe's most powerful crime syndicates whose decisions dictated the price of cocaine across the continent. Masterminded by its ringleaders Franc Çopja, 33, and Ervis Cela, 41, the Albanian gang smuggled billions of pounds worth of cocaine from Latin America into EU ports. It then laundered its assets through a sprawling commercial empire that included vast tracts of real estate, a five-star tourist resort, villas and apartments. The drug lords amassed such vast quantities of cash that they even bickered on whether it was best to hide the banknotes under the roots of olive trees or convert them into gold bullion. But in the space of just days, the cartel saw its operation brought to its knees with Çopja and Cela arrested alongside their senior lieutenants and its assets seized by SPAK – Albania's anti-corruption and organised crime taskforce. In March 2021, investigators infiltrated Sky ECC, an encrypted messaging service, laying bare their alleged crimes. Cela, who was wanted in Italy for torturing and murdering a rival Albanian pimp, was arrested alongside two of his brothers and eight other conspirators in a series of lightning raids in June and August. Copja had been arrested in Belgium in Dec 2023 and is on trial for murder after being extradited from his mansion in Dubai. He is considered the logistical brain behind the operation, securing the transfer of cocaine through ports in northern Europe. 'This criminal organisation can be considered one of the most powerful Albanian organisations in the international cocaine trade,' Altin Dumani and Vladimir Mara, prosecutors, said in a joint statement. 'It had the capacity to directly influence the price of cocaine in European markets and to manage large quantities of the narcotic substance in short periods of time,' they added. The cartel is said to have controlled the entire chain of cocaine trafficking – from production and processing in laboratories in Paraguay, to international transport and distribution in European markets, and finally to the laundering and circulation of illicit proceeds in Albania and other countries. A share of the group's cocaine is believed to have been trafficked across the English Channel to the UK where, according to the National Crime Agency, Albanian-speaking criminal gangs control a sizeable portion of its lucrative market. A kilo of cocaine in the UK is estimated to be worth £40,000 compared to £20,000 in Europe. According to Europol, Europe's police agency, Sky ECC was widely used for criminal purposes, including drug trafficking, money laundering, and the distribution of child sexual abuse material. Although Sky ECC has been shut down, hundreds of millions of encrypted messages remain available and have been examined by law enforcement authorities across Europe and beyond for years. A 282-page-long indictment issued on Aug 8 by SPAK, and seen by The Telegraph, reveals how the gang allegedly attempted to transport 28 tonnes of cocaine hidden in boxes of soap, cans of paint or industrial glue from Paraguay into the ports of Hamburg and Antwerp between 2020 and 2021. On Feb 12 2021, 16.4 tonnes of high-purity cocaine stashed in 1,700 tins of wall putty, with an estimated street value of £3bn, was seized at the ports and was, at the time, the largest seizure of cocaine in Europe's history. Another shipment, which successfully passed through the port of Antwerp in 2020, was worth £1.3bn. The group developed a sophisticated system for transferring illicit drug trafficking proceeds from Europe to Albania, including the use of couriers for cash transfers and a so-called 'hawala' network, enabling the circulation of hundreds of millions of euros in cash. Cela is said to have orchestrated the operation while on the run in Paraguay. In one exchange on Dec 12 2020, Cela told Çopja that he planned to bury his euros in the roots beneath his grove of 200 olive trees in Albania. However, Çopja warned that notes would rot underground and encouraged him to convert them into gold bullion. 'I have to rob a bank' Cela replied: 'There's no gold... I have to rob a bank... I have to order it from Africa.' Çopja said: 'I know somebody who can procure it [the gold] for us.' 'Ask him, whatever he has, 100/200 kilos,' replied Cela. The conversation later drifted toward luxury watches and farmland. By late afternoon the same day, Cela outlined plans to buy two farms for £10m in Paraguay, an investment that, by his estimate, would yield £1.8 million a year. In a separate conversation with his brother over Sky ECC in Nov 2020, Cela wrote that £800,000 owed by one of their traffickers was delayed 'due to a downturn in the UK market'. Cela had spent 11 years on the run before his arrest in the seaside village of Qeparo on the southern coast of Albania on June 29. Along with his brother Ardian and accomplice Hiseni Fatos, he had been convicted in Italy of murdering Petrit Keci in Sept 2008 who had tried to muscle in on the group's prostitution ring in San Benedetto del Tronto. The trio was convicted of beating Keci and shooting him six times in the head before burning his remains in an attempt to conceal the crime. Cela was sentenced to 30 years in prison. His brother received 18 years. The pair, however, managed to appeal the sentence and were held in pre-trial detention, but the time limit on the detention expired before they were re-convicted and they were released in May 2014, giving them the chance to flee abroad and lose themselves in the criminal underworld. Cela will now have to serve a 21-year prison sentence for murder, kidnapping, attempted hiding of a corpse, threats, illegal possession of explosives and ammunition as well as obstruction of justice on top of any convictions he receives for drug smuggling and related offences. One of the more stand-out assets seized by SPAK was the opulent 'Ajman Park' resort in Shijak, a town 27 kilometres west of the capital Tirana. On its still active website, the hotel offers '24 hour security' for those who wish to rent its Greco-Roman style 'Marvel Palace' for wedding functions or dine at its Sushi and Steakhouse restaurant. The seizures marked a rare intervention by Albanian authorities who have almost never launched investigations into the origins of the large-scale capital flowing into the country's tourism and construction sectors.
New European
27-05-2025
- Politics
- New European
Alastair Campbell's diary: The corrupt state desperate for EU membership
The celebrations were barely over when Rama took the chair to host the recent European Political Community Summit in Tirana, truly a sign Albania had arrived on the international stage. Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, Keir Starmer, Recep TayyipErdoğan, Volodymyr Zelensky, Giorgia Meloni, Ursula von der Leyen … all the European big guns turned out in a country most had shunned for decades. Indeed, Starmer was the first serving UK PM ever to visit. I have been visiting Albania regularly for 14 years. This enduring relationship began when then-opposition leader Edi Rama, fresh from losing an election he said had been rigged, asked me to help devise his strategy for the next one when it came. He won it, with a landslide, to become prime minister in 2013. Fast-forward to May 2025, and he has just won his fourth term in power, a stunning achievement for any leader in the modern democratic world. At six feet seven inches tall Rama towered, both physically and politically, over the event. His and his country's confidence were on show. The 47 European leaders arrived into the fastest-growing airport in Europe. They were greeted with an AI film in which they (as children), one by one, said 'welcome to Albania'. Even Erdoğan laughed. The purpose-built venue was decorated with wallpaper made from the feltpen doodles that Rama, an artist before he entered politics, does while working. One of them, I am happy to say, is of me, riding a horse into battle, a sword in one hand, a phone in the other. The entire event sent a clear message: Albania is no longer merely asking for a seat at the table; it is ready to help build it. The prospect of EU membership by 2030 is real and it matters, not just for Albania, but for Europe, because enlargement brings with it greater security and deeper cooperation against instability in the Western Balkans and the malign force of Russian aggression. But EU membership isn't granted on ambition alone. It is earned through democratic values, reforms, and above all, through the rule of law. And herein lies a tension. In recent years, Albania has made real progress on justice reform, essential to repair the damage done to its reputation by corruption. The establishment of SPAK – the Special Structure Against Corruption and Organised Crime – was a landmark step. It was set up with support from the EU and the US and, operating independently from government, it has delivered dramatic results: senior officials, ministers and MPs have been among those prosecuted. Corruption, it has made clear, is no longer consequence-free. But with power comes responsibility; and with judicial power comes an even greater burden – to act fairly, proportionately, and with transparency. That's why what's happening to Tirana's mayor, Erion Veliaj, should worry us all. I have known Veliaj as long as I have known Rama. A Socialist Party colleague and former staffer for Rama, he is widely seen as a possible successor. According to SPAK, he has been running a complex bribery and money-laundering scheme through a network of NGOs and companies controlled by his wife and brother. If true, that is scandalous, and he deserves to be punished. There is a big IF, however. For he has now been held in detention for over 100 days with no charges, nor knowing what the charges are likely to be, while remaining as mayor and expected to run the capital. All this from SPAK – the very institution meant to defend the rule of law, not compromise it. Judicial reform cannot become judicial overreach. Anti-corruption efforts cannot become a cover for arbitrary action. The EU should not be turning a blind eye. Because if the process of accession is to mean anything, it must uphold the very values the Union is built on: due process, judicial integrity, human rights. No official, no matter how high-ranking, should be immune from investigation into wrongdoing. But no citizen, however high-profile, should be detained without charge or due process. Not in a democracy. Not in a country on the path to Europe. What we saw at the EPC Summit was a country setting out its European credentials with real verve. But Albania's place in the EU will be secured not by optics or rousing speeches, but by the substance of its democratic credentials; right now, those are being tested. It's time for clarity. From Brussels. From member states. From all who care about Europe's future. Arbitrary detention has no place in a European democracy. And if Albania is to be part of the EU club – a goal it has every right to pursue – both it, and the bodies responsible for its process of modernisation and accession, must play by the rules of that club, not just its politics. Because in the end, rule of law isn't just a box to tick. It's the foundation for everything else. 'Never go to bed without knowing something you didn't know when you got up in the morning.' One of my little life rules, to keep me curious and keen to keep learning. And the thing I learned last Tuesday, speaking at an event in Leeds Civic Chambers, is that 900,000 children in England live in what is called 'bed poverty'. Also speaking was Bex Wilson, deputy head at a primary school in a deprived area of Leeds, who told the story of a conversation with an 11-year-old boy she was teaching. He was not his usual self, so she asked him if he was tired. 'Miss, I am always tired,' he replied. 'I don't have a bed.' I love stories of people who get good out of bad. That boy now has a bed, thanks to his teacher badgering a bed manufacturer. And Bex, a real force of nature, has founded a charity, Zarach, with the goal of ensuring all children have a bed to sleep in. It's terrible that we even need it, in Britain 2025. But with more than four million British children growing up in poverty, sadly, we do. Check out I was in Leeds to host a panel the following morning at a huge event called UKREiiF, the UK's Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum, attended by 16,000 people. I kicked off by asking for a show of hands on whether Labour's pledge to build 1.5m homes in this parliamentary term would be met. Of the several hundred people packed into our discussion on housing, not a single person (bar a civil servant at the front who probably felt he had to) raised their hand. The general view was that they would be lucky to get halfway there. Worrying. In for a penny, in for a pound, I ended up doing five events at the Hay Literary Festival, including interviews with Donald Trump's former spokesman Anthony Scaramucci, and Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, murder victim of Vladimir Putin's regime. The first was great fun, the second deeply moving, with standing ovations for her courage at both start and finish. I also really enjoyed the session with students from Welsh state schools who were lively, boisterous, passionate and, in the case of those who volunteered to come up on stage and make speeches they were not expecting to make in front of 1,500 teenagers, absolutely brilliant. Labour are committed to lowering the voting age to 16. I would go even lower.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Albanian ex-President Ilir Meta charged with corruption and money laundering
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Former Albanian President Ilir Meta was formally charged on Tuesday with corruption, money laundering, tax evasion and hiding property from authorities, his lawyer said. The charges were communicated to Meta in a 192-page report from anti-corruption prosecutors, lawyer Kujtim Cakrani told journalists. The prosecutors belong to the Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime, or SPAK, which handles cases involving senior political and state officials. Meta, the 56-year-old founder of the leftist Freedom Party, was arrested in October. Meta wrote on his Facebook page that "I can hardly wait for the start of the trial which will be public and will show to the world" that SPAK is a puppet of Prime Minister Edi Rama. Meta also said that he considers the agency to be Rama's 'anti-opposition task force.' Rama's governing Socialist Party achieved a landslide win in the May 11 parliamentary election, getting 83 seats in the 140-seat parliament. Meta, who was president from 2017-2022, has been an outspoken critic of Rama and has denounced his case as a politically motivated attack on an opposition leader. Meta faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted. Meta's former spouse, Monika Kryemadhi, a lawmaker and former leader of the Freedom Party, also is accused of the same crimes. Two other people connected to the case have been accused of money laundering and corruption. Meta has held virtually all senior posts in post-communist Albania, starting as a lawmaker. He eventually became foreign minister, minister of economy, trade and energy, deputy prime minister, prime minister, parliamentary speaker and president. Prosecutors have said that when he was minister of economy, trade and energy, Meta had abused his authority to influence various businesses in which he and Kryemadhi had earned considerable amounts of money. Meta also has failed to account for around $460,000 (404,000 euros) he had used for lobbying in the United States. Both Meta and Kryemadhi also are accused of buying property with illegally obtained money, or not declaring their personal health expenses. Albania, which has started full membership negotiations with the European Union, has been plagued in its post-communist era with corruption that has marred its democratic, economic and social development. Judicial institutions created with the support of the EU and the United States have launched several investigations into former senior government officials allegedly involved in corruption. Sali Berisha, a former prime minister and president and now a lawmaker and leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, is also accused of corruption and is waiting for his trial to begin.
Washington Post
27-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Albanian ex-President Ilir Meta charged with corruption and money laundering
TIRANA, Albania — Former Albanian President Ilir Meta was formally charged on Tuesday with corruption, money laundering, tax evasion and hiding property from authorities, his lawyer said. The charges were communicated to Meta in a 192-page report from anti-corruption prosecutors, lawyer Kujtim Cakrani told journalists. The prosecutors belong to the Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime, or SPAK, which handles cases involving senior political and state officials.
Los Angeles Times
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Former Albanian President Ilir Meta charged with corruption and money laundering
TIRANA, Albania — Former Albanian President Ilir Meta was formally charged on Tuesday with corruption, money laundering, tax evasion and hiding property from authorities, his lawyer said. The charges were communicated to Meta in a 192-page report from anti-corruption prosecutors, lawyer Kujtim Cakrani told journalists. The prosecutors belong to the Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime, or SPAK, which handles cases involving senior political and state officials. Meta, the 56-year-old founder of the leftist Freedom Party, was arrested in October. Meta wrote on his Facebook page that 'I can hardly wait for the start of the trial which will be public and will show to the world' that SPAK is a puppet of Prime Minister Edi Rama. Meta also said that he considers the agency to be Rama's 'anti-opposition task force.' Rama's governing Socialist Party achieved a landslide win in the May 11 parliamentary election, getting 83 seats in the 140-seat parliament. Meta, who was president from 2017 to 2022, has been an outspoken critic of Rama and has denounced his case as a politically motivated attack on an opposition leader. Meta faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted. Meta's former spouse, Monika Kryemadhi, a lawmaker and former leader of the Freedom Party, also is accused of the same crimes. Two other people connected to the case have been accused of money laundering and corruption. Meta has held virtually all senior posts in post-communist Albania, starting as a lawmaker. He eventually became foreign minister, minister of economy, trade and energy, deputy prime minister, prime minister, parliamentary speaker and president. Prosecutors have said that when he was minister of economy, trade and energy, Meta had abused his authority to influence various businesses in which he and Kryemadhi had earned considerable amounts of money. Meta also has failed to account for around $460,000 he had used for lobbying in the United States. Both Meta and Kryemadhi also are accused of buying property with illegally obtained money, or not declaring their personal health expenses. Albania, which has started full membership negotiations with the European Union, has been plagued in its post-communist era with corruption that has marred its democratic, economic and social development. Judicial institutions created with the support of the EU and the United States have launched several investigations into former senior government officials allegedly involved in corruption. Sali Berisha, a former prime minister and president and now a lawmaker and leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, is also accused of corruption and is waiting for his trial to begin. Semini writes for the Associated Press.
