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Ditari i Opozitës

Media at OSCE conference: Organized crime has captured the Albanian state

Politiko 2025-06-05 16:50:41

Chairman of the Republican Party, Fatmir Mediu, stated at the OSCE Conference against Organized Crime that when one government corrupts another government, we are at the highest level of corruption.

From the conference, Mediu called on the OSCE to focus its analysis of the work on the connection between organized crime, drug trafficking, and the government.

Mediu: I want to bring to your attention the current situation of the Albanian mafia issue, he said. We have all seen the series Narcos about how the Mexican drug traffickers became powerful, managing to corrupt the country's prime minister. I think that when the government corrupts another government, we are dealing with high-level corruption. My point of view is that we need to deal with the cooperation of organized crime, drug trafficking with the government. Cooperation and exchange of information between the law enforcement agencies of different countries must be strengthened, as security reports show that the bosses of this organized crime live in Albania.

I'm telling you what happened in the last parliamentary elections in Albania. Based on the OSCE and ODIHR report, there is concern about the influence of organized crime on the vote. Three young people contacted by organized crime who until yesterday had never been involved in politics received more votes in these elections than the Prime Minister's Party. And this is a clear example of the exchange of votes through the influence of organized crime. How is this possible? Thanks to organized crime? How can we fight the lack of the rule of law? When the rule of law is absent, the constitution is not respected, corruption is not fought, there is a vacuum and this brings about the connection of organized crime with the government. And for me this is a major problem.

Previous rapporteurs spoke about following the money in the fight against organized crime and this is done simply when we know that 80% of the construction sector is affected by this phenomenon. Also of concern is the connection with South America where thousands of young Albanians and others from the Western Balkans live today and are in contact with the leaders of organized computer crime and this is a serious problem in the fight against drug cartels and a new phenomenon. Power is not money laundering. Corruption is the opposite and we must cooperate with Europe on this. Europe belongs to the citizens and not only to the leaders, European and OSCE reports follow this problem, that is, the connection of the government with crime and the phenomenon of vote exchange, but after the elections there is only congratulations on the victory. We must take action towards the truth and use it to fight organized crime.