It has been big news in the Albanian media for days: several top figures in the police and judiciary have been arrested as part of a major investigation into murder, corruption and drug trafficking. The investigation also has a Belgian dimension, as some of the incriminating information came from the Sky ECC phones that Belgian detectives were able to hack into two years ago.
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Top Albanian police officers and members of the judiciary arrested thanks to info from Belgium
Colin Clapson
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Two years ago Belgian police managed to hack into Sky ECC's encrypted phones and has been able to read the plans of a whole bunch of criminals. In Belgium, this yielded a wealth of information - read: hundreds of convictions have since been handed down.
But the results do not stop at national borders. Indeed, the information was also shared with several other countries. With success. In Serbia, for instance, a large drug cartel was broken up. In Colombia, one of the most wanted drug criminals Dairo Antonio Usaga - aka Otoniel – was collared in 2021.
Operation "Metamorphosis"
The Belgian judiciary was also able to pass on a lot of interesting information to Albania. Under the code name "Metamorphosis", the Albanian special anti-corruption unit SPAK carried out several raids last week.
Eight suspects were arrested, nine others are still on the run. It’s been big news in Albania for days, as the arrests not only include names from the underworld, but several top police officers and members of the judiciary officials also came into detectives' sights.
The investigation is a challenge for the Albanian judiciary: offences were committed by government officials, senior police officers as well as a prosecutor undermining the proper functioning of the rule of law.
The allegations are serious: murder, corruption, abuse of office, falsification of documents, trafficking in narcotics, membership of a criminal organisation and so on.
Sums of money, several vehicles, firearms, phones were all seized during 26 house searches. Police are still searching for nine suspects, including a notorious figure in the Albanian underworld, who is still missing.
Interior Minister Taulant Balla called it a "complex operation". "The net has closed around these organised crime figures, as well as around the officers and prosecutors allegedly involved in the crimes."
In the communication, Albania's special anti-corruption unit SPAK explicitly thanked the Belgian, Dutch and French courts, as well as Eurojust and Europol for their cooperation.