FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The path from entrepreneurship in strategic sectors to SPAK investigations and suspected links to organized crime.
In the early morning hours of July 2023, a large-scale SPAK operation marked the end of a myth that had been circulating silently for years: the arrest of Pëllumb Gjoka, a name that appeared in documents as a successful entrepreneur, but that investigations showed was hidden behind a criminal network with deep connections in the police, justice, and the underworld.
Gjoka was arrested as part of Operation Metamorphosis, along with former State Police officials, people with serious criminal records, and a former prosecutor. For the first time, the criminal file revealed a scheme where business, crime, and power were intertwined through corruption, violence, and money.
According to SPAK, Gjoka is accused of providing conditions for the commission of four murders, participation in a structured criminal group, active corruption of judges, prosecutors and other justice officials, as well as money laundering. Investigations based on encrypted SKY ECC communications depict him not as a peripheral figure, but as a central node of criminal decision-making.
In decrypted conversations, Gjoka appears as a principal, intermediary and guarantor: he financed, secured information from institutions and intervened to facilitate or block criminal investigations in favor of his allies.
The criminal file describes Gjoka's connections with law enforcement agencies. Former State Police officials are suspected of providing him with advance information about police operations, enabling him to shut down illegal activities before the controls.
In SKY ECC communications, the name of Oltian Bistri appears, suspected of serving as an informant for internal developments of the State Police. The messages show that Gjoka was informed about the schedules, areas and intensity of operations, thus maintaining the formal "purity" of his businesses.
SPAK suspects that during the time Lita headed the Shkodra Prosecution Office, several sensitive cases regarding Gjoka's properties and allies were dismissed or eased, while communications between them were frequent and direct.
In parallel with the suspected criminal activity, Gjoka was building a completely different public profile: that of a businessman. Starting from fishing in the Velipoja River, he initially entered the trade and processing of fish, only to later move towards sectors with fast cash flow.
In the late 2000s, at the height of the gambling boom, the Gjoka family created companies that operated in games of chance, expanding their activities to several major cities. While the government led by Edi Rama declared war on this sector, the points connected to Gjoka seemed untouched.
Then came construction, tourism and public contracts. During the pandemic, companies linked to it won tenders for disinfection. In 2021, one of them was declared a “strategic investor” for the construction of a luxury resort in Velipojë – a project worth tens of millions of euros, approved despite objections from the local government and investigations into land ownership.
The property was seized, while the strategic project was placed under a heavy shadow of suspicion: a major investment built on documents that, according to new investigations, did not hold up.
After his arrest, Gjoka attempted to suppress the evidence, challenging the legality of the SKY ECC wiretaps all the way to the Constitutional Court. All levels of the judiciary rejected his request. The December 2024 decision confirmed the validity of the communications as criminal evidence.
Today, Pëllumb Gjoka is in Fier prison, while his file remains one of the most important filed by SPAK. From arrest to charges, from crime to business, the investigations expose a model where formal entrepreneurship serves as a facade, while real power is built through fear, corruption and violence until the moment when coded messages collapse everything./ Shteg.org
Lini një Përgjigje