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FOLLOW THE MONEY
- November 7, 2025 11:00
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It was a cold October night in the city of Fier, in southwestern Albania, when police stopped a black Audi A8.
For weeks, the police had been chasing suspected drug traffickers using that car. That night in October 2013, police inspector Dritan Zagani ordered his team to bring the vehicle to the police station. But once he got there, Zagani realized that chasing someone for drug smuggling wouldn’t be that simple – his superior forbade the police from inspecting the car.
The problem? The car reportedly belonged to one of the country's most powerful figures – then-Minister of Interior, Saimir Tahiri.
Instead of cracking down on potential drug crimes, prosecutors went after Zagan: they accused him of exceeding his powers.
Now, more than 10 years later, from a safe place and with a new identity, Zagani explained that, during his decades in the police force, he had seen how organized crime had become increasingly intertwined with the Albanian state. Dressed in plain black clothes, with a hat lowered to his forehead, the former policeman spoke rapidly.
"What I feared has happened. My country has become a narco-state," Zagani told Follow the Money, sipping his coffee in a quiet courtyard in Switzerland earlier this year.
For Zagan, much of the Albanian mafia's penetration into the government can be attributed to the current Prime Minister, Edi Rama.
Rama secured his Socialist Party an unprecedented fourth term in national elections, which observers say were marred by irregularities.
Part of Rama’s campaign focused on portraying himself as a pro-European Union politician who loves the rule of law. On the surface, he has been a strong supporter of anti-corruption and anti-drug efforts. In September, the government even created a minister for Artificial Intelligence to make Albania “a country where public tenders are 100 percent free of corruption.”
But in reality, an investigation by "Follow the Money" shows how organized crime groups have been able to flourish during Rama's decade in power - with disastrous consequences for the rest of Europe.
Europe has seen a significant increase in drug trafficking by the Albanian mafia in recent years,
with authorities carrying out a record number of smuggling operations.
Over the past few years, the Albanian mafia has expanded its networks abroad, while Rama has done little to curb the influence of these criminal organizations, according to interviews with prosecutors, police officers and experts.
Confidential documents, seen by Follow the Money, support these claims. This has raised serious concerns for Italy, where Albanian drug gangs are gaining more and more influence. It also raises questions about why Brussels is supporting Tirana’s bid for EU membership, given the allegations against Rama and the country’s failure to combat organised crime.
The prime minister's office rejected the corruption allegations, calling them "political accusations."
Government infiltration
Albania's economy makes the country vulnerable to organized crime groups.
"Criminal groups have penetrated all spheres of the state," said Zagani.
About 20 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, about 30 percent of young people are unemployed, the average salary is around 600 euros per month, and the country is still struggling to develop tourism.
Organized crime groups take advantage of this situation by often investing money in cheap real estate to launder money and using local companies as a cover.
But the Albanian mafia's influence has gone further than simply controlling local businesses, according to Zagani – it has installed key people in government and the judiciary.
In Zagan's clash with Interior Minister Tahiri and his suspected network of drug traffickers, Rama sided with Tahiri.
It was only in 2019, two years after Italy's Guardia di Finanza directly implicated the interior minister in the investigation, that he was sentenced to prison. Tahiri was convicted only of abuse of office, while he was also accused of links to a criminal network suspected of drug trafficking.
Zagani himself was released from prison awaiting trial after several months of detention in Tirana prison in 2015. He then fled to Switzerland, where he was granted asylum.
If Zagan were to ever return to Albania, it is highly likely that he would face prison again: he has been sentenced to seven years in prison in absentia.
But this is not the only case where a close associate of Rama appears to have, at least initially, been shielded from criminal prosecution.
In early 2025, another former Minister of Interior of the country and then Minister of State for Relations with Parliament, Taulant Balla, found himself in trouble on corruption charges.
While he was a minister, he was also the Socialist Party’s political leader for the diaspora. As such, he was responsible for protecting the interests of Albanians abroad – but his associates were caught on wiretaps promising around €60 for every vote from the diaspora in the UK. With 2.5 million Albanians living abroad, the small country has almost as many people abroad as within its borders.
Balla is well known to European police forces: his name came to the fore during a global investigation into the “SKY ECC” communications network. The operation, led by several European police forces, aimed to crack down on encrypted satellite phones used by criminals around the world to communicate.
After authorities managed to access the conversations, they saw that Balla was in contact with drug traffickers, according to a portion of the transcripts published by local media outlet "Lapsi".
The Prime Minister of Albania has defended Balla and kept him in office.
Manjola Hasa, spokesperson for the Albanian Government, rejected any accusation that Rama had taken an unfair stance in favor of his allies.
“This is an insulting and ridiculous mess, because, first of all, political accusations are not facts, and slander… is not a reason to continue to smear innocent people by violating their dignity,” she said.
However, allegations of corruption have not gone unnoticed by the population: in Transparency International's corruption perception index, the country currently ranks 80th out of 180 countries, making it one of the most corrupt countries in Europe.
Protection of Rama's associates
In January of last year, an opposition MP accused Rama's brother, Olsi, of participating in the construction of a cocaine laboratory.
While Rama defended his brother, data from the country's border management system, which was seen by "Follow the Money", shows that Olsi Rama was driving a car that was later identified as being used by a local mafia group.
In January of this year, SPAK, the Albanian anti-corruption agency, declared his brother innocent, clearing him of all charges.
In February 2024, former FBI agent Charles McGonigal was convicted in the United States of accepting a bribe of 225,000 euros from an associate of Rama, primarily to investigate political rivals.
A booming drug hub in Europe
While Albanian criminal groups flourish in the country, they have expanded throughout Europe, law enforcement officials told "FTM".
"The Albanian mafia is gaining ground in an extraordinary way. Not only in terms of the amount of drugs being trafficked or the number of people involved – but more in their ability to organize," said a representative of the Guardia di Finanza's investigative unit against organized crime in Brescia and Rome, which has led several investigations into Albanian drug trafficking cases.
"From what we're seeing, they're at least as powerful as the Italian mafia."
In Italy, for example, police have significantly increased the number of seizures of cannabis and hard drugs linked to Albanian criminal groups.
Last September, Operation Tornado in Brescia, northern Italy, led to more than 60 arrests. Over 400 police officers were involved in a four-year investigation, which resulted in the seizure of 300 kilograms of cocaine, worth over 60 million euros.
At the head of the operation, Italian police told "Follow the Money", was an Albanian organized crime group.
"All the bosses were Albanian, and most of them stayed in Albania," said an Italian police officer involved in the operation.
"They ran everything from afar."
The group laundered money by sending fake invoices through a network of companies – worth around 375 million euros – that first passed through Eastern Europe, then China, and then returned to Albania, police said.
And in March of this year, Italian police arrested four Albanians in Bologna, as part of an international anti-drug operation, suspected of smuggling cocaine, marijuana, and hashish worth around 5 million euros from the Netherlands to Italy.
Authorities began to understand the real dimensions of the Albanian mafia in Europe during the investigations into the "Sky ECC" case, in which former Minister Balla was also involved.
"We discovered that they were very active. They have logistical bases that stretch from Albania to Belgium, through Germany," said Nicolo Gratteri, an Italian prosecutor specializing in the fight against organized crime.
A series of trials convicted more than 1,000 people following this wide-ranging investigation that began in 2021, during which around 179 million euros were seized.
Shortly after the investigation began, Albanian mafia members placed a 1 million euro reward for a Belgian investigating judge.
"Today these groups control the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam," Gratteri said. "They can easily smuggle several hundred kilograms of drugs in a single trip."
In Belgium, all cannabis plantations are under the control of Albanian organized crime groups. At the end of April, Belgian police raided a cannabis plantation, which was reportedly run by an Italian-Albanian group.
These are not isolated cases, and signs of Albanian dominance are increasing every day.
In its 2024 report, Europol – the EU law enforcement agency – defines the Albanian mafia as one of the five most threatening criminal groups in Europe, for both cocaine and cannabis trafficking.
Along the same lines, Fatjona Mejdini, director of the Southeast Europe Observatory at the Global Initiative Against International Organized Crime, warned about the dominance of the Albanian mafia.
"They are one of the most threatening mafias in Europe," she said.
SPAK counted up to 16 Albanian criminal groups that were active that same year.
According to the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA), Albanian groups now control the majority of the British cocaine market – the largest in Europe.
Meanwhile, Spain – a key entry point for cocaine from Latin America – has seen a dramatic increase in seizures: 13 tons linked to Albanian networks were seized in Algeciras in November 2024, a historic record.
In 2023, Spanish authorities seized a total of 118 tons of cocaine – up from just 37 tons five years earlier.
Non-independent judiciary
Zagani believes the government pressured the judiciary to convict him – and he is not alone in thinking the courts are not independent.
Under the administration of US President Barack Obama, the development agency USAID spent about $27 million to finance a reform aimed at separating politics from justice.
To this end, a new structure to tackle the most serious crimes – the Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) – was created in 2016. In theory, it was supposed to be an independent entity.
But this step had the opposite effect.
While this structure was created to fight corruption, it appears to have allowed the prime minister to use justice as a political weapon: prosecutors are selected from a panel of people appointed by Parliament, who are often friends of Rama and the Socialist Party.
"The country is completely infected with corruption and is run by Rama and his close associates," said former Deputy Prime Minister of Albania, Arben Ahmetaj.
Sitting on a small terrace in a quiet alley somewhere in Switzerland earlier this year, Ahmetaj, who had been in government from 2013 to 2022, accused Rama of removing people who could threaten his position.
"Today, Rama's political rivals are all pursued by justice - even those who rise up against him within the party itself," said the former Minister of Finance.
Ahmetaj was ousted from the government in July 2022 after a power struggle with the prime minister. He was subsequently accused of corruption, charges he believes were fabricated by the government to tarnish his reputation. The government has presented no evidence, and Ahmetaj maintains his innocence.
Similar to Zagan, Ahmetaj sought asylum in Switzerland in 2023 after learning that an arrest warrant had been issued for him in Albania. In his asylum application, he stated that the judiciary had intimidated his friends and family and searched their offices and homes.
Italian police sources support the allegations of corruption and complain that they believe organized crime has infiltrated the justice system in Albania.
“Whenever cooperation is requested, we carry out our own verifications,” said a senior Italian police official, explaining that they do not always trust Albanian counterparts to provide accurate or complete information.
SPAK did not respond to requests for comment.
Italian police forces have been present in Albania since the 1990s to fight international crime, but that does not mean that cooperation is going well, he said.
According to the Italian official, the main problem is that the authorities' low salaries make them susceptible to corruption.
"When you see a prosecutor, who is supposed to earn 800 euros a month, driving a Maserati, it's clear that there's something wrong there," he said, declining to give further details on the case for confidentiality reasons.
Hasa, Rama's spokesperson, denied the accusations.
"This is another political accusation from Edi Rama's opponents, for which there is no fact," she said.
A profitable business model
Part of the Albanian mafia's success is explained by its business model: they cut out the middlemen and began to base their operations in drug-supplying states.
Matt Shea, a documentary filmmaker who has extensively researched the Albanian cocaine trade, has interviewed both Colombian cartel leaders and members of the Albanian mafia.
"When I met with the Clan del Golfo," he said of a paramilitary group believed to control most of Colombia's cocaine production, "they told me that the Albanians offered them a bigger share of the profits. Unlike the 'Ndrangheta, which paid the standard Colombian price per kilogram, the Albanians proposed a 50-50 split."
And as Albanians are strengthening their presence in Latin America, more drugs are returning to Europe.
According to Europol, notorious trafficker Dritan Gjika was shipping tons of cocaine to Albania and several European ports. According to Ecuadorian investigative media outlet Plan V, he used banana export company Agricomtrade to hide the drugs in shipments to Europe.
Various raids took place simultaneously in Ecuador and Spain, leading to the seizure of over 3 tons of drugs and 48 million euros in financial assets.
In February last year, police raided Gjika's home in the southwestern city of Guayaquil. He has been on the run since then.
But Gjika is not the only one using this scheme.
French writer Stéphane Quere, author of a book tracing the origins of Albanian organized crime, said that banana containers, which often come from Ecuador – a major exporter of the fruit – are the preferred hideouts of smugglers. This is because inspecting banana containers is difficult, as port authorities risk paying damages if the bananas spoil.
However, the numbers speak for themselves, Quere said.
“There are more than 40 companies that import bananas to Albania,” he said with irony. “They must love bananas very much.”
Untroubled
Although police and prosecutors warn of the growing presence of the Albanian mafia, Europe seems to be turning a blind eye to events. Voices critical of Rama are rare.
On Tuesday, the European Commission published its assessment of Albania's progress towards EU membership, stating in a press release that the country has made "progress" since last year - although in the detailed report it added that "corruption remains widespread in sensitive sectors".
One of Rama's strongest supporters has been the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
"Dear Edi, you and your team have done an excellent job," she said during a visit to Tirana in October 2024.
With this, she referred to the state's reform plans for the rule of law and preparations for EU membership.
"It's perfect," she said of the reform plans.
Part of von der Leyen’s continued support can be explained by Albania’s strategic importance. With its shared border with Greece and a narrow strip of the Adriatic Sea, the small country has offered to help the bloc by hosting refugees, for example, or by reopening one of its air bases to NATO.
Von der Leyen's messages of support are essential in Albania's bid to join the European Union, as negotiations officially begin in July 2022.
“Dear Edi, Albania is on the right track to joining the European Union. Thank you very much for your hard work, your dedication and your friendship,” von der Leyen concluded her speech that October.
For Ahmetaj, the former minister, Europe's continued support is incomprehensible.
"I don't understand why Europe turns a blind eye to the reality of the situation in Albania," he said.