FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The SPAK Special Prosecution Office has provided details of the crackdown on the Çopjave criminal group in Elbasan, who are accused of international cocaine trafficking from Latin American countries to Europe.
The criminal group based in Elbasan attempted to traffic about 17 tons of cocaine to Europe. The Special Court, at the request of SPAK, has issued 16 arrest warrants in total.
How was money circulated and managed?
The investigation has shown that this group had set up an extremely sophisticated financial mechanism to circulate and hide the proceeds of criminal activity. According to SPAK, one of the main methods was the physical transport of cash from EU countries to Albania, using mainly Albanian bus drivers for international passenger transport.
This approach had several advantages for the group:
Avoiding bank tracing and the legal obligation to declare the source of funds;
Avoiding official customs controls by using shortcuts and less monitored border crossings;
Safety through a trusted network of drivers, whose number was limited and selected based on a relationship built on mutual trust.
In exchange for the service and the risk assumed, the drivers received a fee of about 2% on the amount transported. These payments were made directly by the group members and guaranteed by the persons responsible for managing the financial logistics.
Payment coordination:
Key figures such as FG, E.Ç., and other associates played an active role in organizing these transfers. Internal payments and compensations were often disguised through other secret transactions, designed to leave no trace in the official financial system.
In addition to physical transport, the network also used an informal transfer system known as “hawala” or “token”, where large sums of money circulated through a chain of intermediaries without any banking records. A significant portion of the funds were channeled to Bolivia, which, due to its low level of financial control and strategic location, served as a key hub for completing international money transactions.
The combination of these methods, physical transport with trusted drivers and the informal transfer system, enabled this criminal organization to circulate hundreds of millions of euros in cash, significantly reducing the risk of seizure and ensuring the continuity of its activity on an international scale.
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