FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
There have been progressive increases in proceedings against criminal groups and money laundering, Altin Dumani, head of SPAK, said in the Assembly, as he presented the annual report to MPs.
He said that Albanian criminal groups continue to be active in drug trafficking, while they have their activities in European Union countries. He said that 117 people are internationally wanted as part of criminal groups.
"The fight against organized crime this year, compared to the previous year, has marked significant achievements with an increase of about 18.8% in the registration of these criminal proceedings. Likewise, the number of persons under investigation for these proceedings has also increased by about 21.6%, compared to 2023. On the other hand, there is a decrease of about 7.3% in cases sent for trial due to their volume and complexity," said the head of SPAK.
Regarding the fight against corruption, Dumani stated that SPAK has followed an active approach by investigating a significant number of senior officials.
"During 2024, 33 former senior officials were under investigation (where two of them are registered in two different proceedings each), of which 19 officials have been sent to court with a request for trial. Of the total number of former senior officials under investigation, 19 of them have been sent to court, which represents 52.9% of cases. Cooperation from public institutions regarding referrals received from them still needs to be improved. Thus, the number of proceedings initiated from referrals followed by public institutions remains low, accounting for only 15.1% of the total referrals sent to SPAK by all public and private entities. It is worth noting that referrals received from the state police, compared to 2023, have also marked a worrying decrease of 53.8%," said Dumani.
Violation of equality in tenders and laundering of the proceeds of crime were assessed by the Head of SPAK as the most widespread among the criminal offenses prosecuted by the Special Prosecution Office.
"SPAK has given special importance to property and financial investigations. In this context, the Financial Investigators Sector has been strengthened by building human capacity mainly in financial and property investigations with complex operations inside and outside the country, including cryptocurrency operations. During 2024, with the assistance of international experts, the issuance of a general instruction on administrative and procedural measures for conducting financial and property investigations in SPAK was finalized.
Meanwhile, for confiscated assets, this value amounts to about 36.7 million euros. Thus, the value of seized assets accounts for about 43.8% of the total value, while confiscated assets account for about 56.2% of the total value. Also compared to 2023, an increase of about 59.7% of the total value of seized and confiscated assets is noted (about 65.5 million euros in 2024 compared to about 41 million euros in 2023)", said Dumani, presenting the annual report.
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