The US ambassador in Albania Donald Lu has urged the authorities in Tirana to fight against organised crime, which he said was the biggest and most difficult challenge ahead for the country.

Albania’s Socialist-led government, which won another mandate in June election, has pledged to step up its efforts against organised crime. Judicial reforms launched in Albania last year will help the country to achieve this goal. The reforms are also crucial for the country to make further progress towards EU membership. Albania has been an EU candidate country since 2014 and a Nato member since 2009.

“According to US State Department reports, Albania is a centre of organised crime activity which includes trafficking in drugs, weapons, and prostitution,” Lu said as he delivered a speech at the Magistrates School in Tirana on October 2. 

According to Lu, four major clans control 20 crime families in Albania that manage criminal operations, which include money laundering, human trafficking, blackmail and car theft.

Lu expressed concern that Albania’s criminal leaders are seldom arrested and almost never prosecuted. 

He warned that “until the big fish are arrested, prosecuted and go to jail, the cannabis will return, judges will be bribed, and government officials will be corrupted.”

One of the main concerns is that Albania has a substantial black market for smuggled goods, primarily tobacco, jewellery, stolen cars and mobile phones. 

Lu was concerned that there were “zero convictions, zero arrests, and zero prosecutions, of any big fish for organizing, leading or financing drug trafficking organisations in 2016 and in 2015.”

“In 2016, the police arrested 1,349 people for offenses linked to drug trafficking and of them less than 100 led to drug trafficking convictions in the Serious Crime Court,” Lu noted.

He mentioned Klement Balili, an international drug trafficker wanted by Greece and the US Drug Enforcement Agency, calling him a "magician", as he managed to escape Albanian justice for 18 months due to the "incompetence" of prosecutors, the police and the justice ministry.

Lu also said that the weak legal system puts the country at significant risk from money laundering.

He said it is critical that Albanian police, prosecutors and intelligence services work more closely together to fight organised crime.

At the end he concluded “We believe it is time for the government of Albania to declare war on organised crime.”

However, the US ambassador praised Albanian authorities for removing criminals from the parliament as part of the ongoing judicial reforms, and for making significant progress against cannabis cultivation.

Judicial reforms will include the vetting process that will scan the pasts of the judges and prosecutors, and will start next week. 

“It has been a long road to reach this point, but this process will be done well and professionally, giving hope to all Albanians that they can find justice in their courts,” Lu said.