Albanian former Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri accused in drug-smuggling

For two days media in Italy and Albania are releaseing transcripts of Italian police wiretaps of alleged drug smugglers, in which they mention former Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri as someone they paid off with drug money. The Court of Catania mentions the name of the former Socialist Minister of Interior, Tahiri, at the documents that led to the arrest of Moisi Habilaj. According to Italian judges and prosecutors, Habilaj mentions Tahiri as his cousin and supporter. He also mentions him of having given money for electoral campaign. “Both suspects talk about a person with power, named Saimir Tahiri, MP in Albania. Moisiu says: ‘What does he have more than us?’ But Sabaudin answers by saying that Tahiri has only the name, but he suspects he has more money than them. Moisiu makes some calculations, through which Saimir Tahiri has made more than 5 million EUR in a month. And all that money goes for the electoral campaign. But Moisiu says that 20 million are not enough for an electoral campaign’”, say the Italian investigators. Tahiri responded immediately by saying that two of the alleged smugglers, Moisi and Florian Habilaj, were his very distant cousins. “Two criminals, very distant cousins of mine have mentioned my name and it is not the first time when criminals have used a minister’s name,” Tahiri said. One of the cousins, Moisi Habilaj, was arrested in Italy on 17 October, among several Albanians and Italians detained for allegedly trafficking around 3.5 tons of marijuana Tahiri admitted that he made a mistake by selling the cousins a car four years ago – a vehicle which the Albanian opposition claims has been used to distribute drugs. Tahiri has offered himself to testify in the Prosecution Office about accusations against him. After that the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, reacted on social networks: “In the past 20 years, many politicians have been involved in public accusations. Sometimes they were true, some times not. But different from my predecessor, I cannot be the one who decide the fate of who is guilty and who is not. We want the truth as soon as possible", says Rama. While the Albanian Interior Minister, Fatmir Xhafaj, underlined that this matter goes to the Italian Justice. Today the opposition parties, decided to create a joint opposition front against crime. This political front requires the immediate dismissal from the Government of Prime Minister Edi Rama as the only responsible for the situation created and his ties with the organized crime. This political front also requires the creation of a new anti-mafia government and a new electoral reform that would enable free and fair elections in Albania, says the joint public declaration of the opposition parties. The opposition raises alarms, but they need to pressure the Prosecutor General. If the Prosecution doesn’t start investigating, no Albanian official will ever be punished. former Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri i had already been accused of having connections to people involved in the drugs trade in 2015. Dritan Zagani, the former chief of the anti-drugs unit in Fier, , was the first to allege a link between Tahiri and the Habilaj family. Tahiri was appointed interior minister by Rama when he took office in September 2013. He was dismissed by Rama on March 2017.