Two ex- bodyguards of former Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri, a close collaborator of the Socialist Party (SP) Prime Minister Edi Rama, have been handcuffed. According to reports on Wednesday, Agustin Deda and Hekuran Marku were arrested in France and Germany as the two of them were wanted because they were escorts of tons of cannabis that was trafficked to Italy. This was discovered by an operation codenamed ‘Spirit’.
The special prosecution for serious crime called SPAK has reportedly sent the relevant materials to the two countries for their extradition to Albania.
It has been revealed that the two former companions of former Minister Saimir Tahiri, Agustin Deda and Hekuran Marku, were the main people who organized the cultivation and subsequent trafficking of cannabis from Albania to Italy.
The penitents of justice have confessed to the prosecution that in one case Deda and Marku had a plot of land in a forested area in Tepelena, southern Albania, which they had planted with cannabis, which was administered by a young man, who was a ‘professional’ in cultivating the narcotic plant, while workers were paid from 15 to 20 euros per day.
There is evidence that they were involved in shipment of drugs from Albania to Italy and their work was made easier due to the fact that they were bodyguards of the former Interior Minister, Tahiri
Tahiri, who has been one of the key figures in the ruling Socialist Party, has repeatedly rejected any involvement in the dirty affairs, and has even threatened key SP figures of denouncing them if they step up a probe against him. Tahiri case remains one of the most notorious occasions of the ‘fear’ of the judiciary towards the big ‘fish’.
SPAK has not given any details if Tahiri is involved in the operations of his former bodyguards. / argumentum.al
