Whistleblower Dritan Zagani on Corruption and Organised Crime in Albania · #DNL31 #OrganisedCrime

Transcript of Dritan Zaganis talk at #DNL31 Organised Crime: A Global Business.

Watch his talk below, and the full panel Politics, Money & Rifles: Exposing Global Mafias, Authoritarian Power & Corruption with Vincenzo Musacchio, Pleurad Xhafa, Dritan Zagani, Andrea Dip, Anton Radniankou & Verena Zoppei

My name is Dritan Zagani. I'm from Albania. I'm an ex-police officer who worked with the Albanian State Police primarily in the fight against drug trafficking between my country and the rest of the world.

Drug trafficking in Albania

Drug trafficking in my country consists of two different activities. The first is Albanian-grown drugs, mainly marijuana. This cultivation is no longer fought by the state and it's easier to grow and process the drug directly in Albania. It's the simplest way to do it because it's grown and processed there for export. There are two ways to transport it: by sea or by land. By sea, as you know, between... Between my country and Italy there's a very quick way out. In an hour or so by speedboat, they can move huge shipments, even tons, into Italy. And then from Italy to the rest of Europe. It's easier now. As you know, there are no more borders in Europe. And then overland with a fleet of trucks, different cargoes, hidden among goods originating from Albania on trucks especially equipped for this. Secondly, Albania now has become a key point in Europe for the trafficking of hard narcotics such as heroin or cocaine. Heroin that comes from... From the east, from Afghanistan and Turkey to then enter Europe through our country. This is always by land, by truck, as you know. But the biggest problem is that the cocaine that comes from South America has become one of the main sources of income for Albanian traffickers. Today, there are Albanian traffickers throughout Europe and South America. They directly and indirectly control the drug transit route by preparing cargoes with merchant ships leaving from South America to Europe. Whenever they have the chance, they bribe people. In major European ports as well. But also in our country.

Corruption no longer exists. They control everything.

Given the support the traffickers have from all the state institutions, it's easier to bring in drug shipments and store them in Albania, before transit to Europe via the different sea or land routes. This has now become a main way of trafficking drugs. They are first Albanian drug traffickers who not only get the support, but who are no longer in conflict with Albanian law for this activity, because... Corruption no longer exists. They control everything. They decide who should be the person in charge of drug controls. After all, it's their homeland. In Albania they're in their home country, they can do whatever they want. They can bring in the shipments without problem.

Drug traffickers and the Albanian government

As I said earlier, organized crime has always been present in our country. Up until... Excuse me. I'll start again. As I said before, organized crime has always been present in our country. It wasn't born today. It was different before, though. The state was fighting organized crime and the drug traffickers, the criminal groups, were bribing people when it served their purpose to carry out their criminal activities. So everything was slightly more covered up, difficult, and law enforcement and drug traffickers were always at war with each other. That's the way it always had been. Instead, after 2013, things changed greatly because the drug traffickers now had control over my country's government. And in my country, everything hinges on politics. So therefore... For their criminal activity, the traffickers no longer needed to resort to bribery. They put their people into the key positions in the state institutions so they would be left alone and free to do as they like. They no longer have that opposition they had before. This is what has changed. From what I was able to discern, and from the information I got through my work, my profession, today the problem is no longer how to bring drugs into Albania, now the problem is how to distribute the drugs in Europe. It's changed. However, there's very robust propaganda coming out from Albanian politicians about how they're fighting the war against drugs. It's true that a number of operations are being carried out.

There are a number of cases that have garnered a great deal of press coverage today in Europe about what's going on. However, in all these cases, there's either a war going on between the drug traffickers for control, to have influence and to have a larger share of the market with respect to the other gangs, or there are operations carried out by European partners who come to Albania with dossiers at the ready and they carry out busts. The Albanian police have no way out. In these cases as well, the European partners often have been let down because information has already reached the ears of the traffickers. And always, always, almost always the bosses, the heads of the drug trafficking activity and the most important members of the trafficking network eluded capture. 

From police officer to fugitive in asylum

I'm an ex-policeman. I graduated from the police academy in my country in 1993. And from that point on I worked as a police officer holding various positions within the police force. The last one being in the anti-drug section where I worked for most of my career in law enforcement. My story is somewhat unusual because I had, I wouldn't say a misfortune, but the good fortune to know from the inside just how corruption and organized crime works in my country, especially concerning drug trafficking, both the primary one in our country, that is home-grown marijuana, and then moving on to the organization of hard narcotics trafficking like cocaine and heroin that come from two different routes. Heroin from Asia and cocaine from Latin America. In this war, this work, I have been lucky to be able to better understand how these things work. And this was, so to say, my main problem.

My main problem is that today I am, for my country, a fugitive. Even though the entire world thinks I am a policeman in exile. Currently, I and my family have been forced to seek asylum in Switzerland because in my own country the situation there for me went horribly wrong. This for just one reason, because I wouldn't turn a blind eye to the political collusion that rose to the highest levels, namely ministerial, collusion in drug trafficking with local organized crime gangs where I was working in Fier and Vlorë, in southern Albania.

Endless Trial 

Following this, I left the country and now find myself, as I said, a fugitive from it. And I am still today facing an endless trial with the state to obtain justice, to legally prove that I am innocent. Because to tell you the truth, I've already won my personal justice. I won it the moment when my Italian colleagues gave their approval and arrested the whole gang who had colluded with the Minister of the Interior and who were also members of his own family. And from that moment my professional victory came to an end and... I'm at peace and happy with the outcome. However, as you know, in my country, politics and drug traffickers are now one and the same. They are in charge and for me the trial has run into several-- several obstacles. It's going very slowly. As of now I've been convicted until the hearing from the highest court of appeal, and they still haven't given me a definitive answer so that I can move forward with the European Court of Human Rights. And for that reason the trial is at a standstill. And me being in my current condition, all I can do is wait. I can't move forward for economic reasons as well because I need a good lawyer, good legal representation that can move the trial ahead. I'm not able to do this so I'm forced to live, quote unquote, isolated from my country, here in Switzerland, even if the isolation only means that I can't return home to my country.

Minister released, Zagani sentenced to 7 years

What's strange in all this is that for everything I denounced and did for my job, now the minister is sentenced to prison. Even though he was granted house arrest after a year because you know the way justice works for politicians in my country. But for the same offence that he was convicted of, with the same charge, abuse of office, the Albanian court and justice system sentenced me to seven years. This is a paradox because either I lied and he shouldn't have been convicted, or he is convicted and I told the truth, so I should be cleared of the charge. But that's the way it goes. This is the justice system.

What can the international community do to help?

The international community can lend a helping hand to my country in the future by exposing as much truth as possible. It's easy to do when you have proof, you can expose the propaganda put out by these drug traffickers who today are in control of my country. Because the truth, both there and abroad, with Albanian drug trafficking is something else altogether. And I'm not the only one saying this. All the other European legal investigative agencies say the same thing. The results of all the anti-drug operations taking place reveal that, for the most part, I don't mean to say all of them, if it's not the big Albanian drug lords, it's the Albanian state apparatus behind this drug trafficking. And this happens thanks to the situation they find in our country, because they're not challenged by the law. In fact, they are supported in many cases as money laundering from drug trafficking. All the drug traffickers in my country live peaceful lives and invest their money. This is the problem because this Albanian phenomenon continues to worsen, and this... That's what the international comunity has to watch out for and keep their eyes open, not listen to government propaganda that does its best to hide the truth.

What I'm asking, what I'd like, if possible, is not to discuss my personal situation, but to discuss the actual situation in my country today. I feel sorry, but not for myself. In one way or another my personal situation is that I'm safe. However, the situation is getting worse in my country regarding the drug trafficking situation and now the abuse of drugs as well.

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