Aruba, 'another brick in the wall'

2025-09-29 11:19:00, Opinione CNA

A huge uproar has been caused by the public disclosure of a meeting on the Caribbean island of Aruba in 2019 between representatives of drug cartels and senior representatives of the then-ruling government in Tirana. That is, Rama's government.

But the Aruba meeting is just one brick in the edifice of Rama's drug-state. "Another brick in the wall" is a famous Pink Floyd song.

It is at least the third time in two days that the highest American diplomatic representatives in Tirana have made statements about the need for an uncompromising fight against drug cartels, as a priority of President Trump's policy that is defining those cartels as terrorists. The commitment that the Americans are seeking is to destroy the "safe havens" of these cartels in Albania. So Albania before and after May 11, 2025 is a safe haven for drug cartels and this apparently also violates the security of the United States.

Albania under the Rama 3 and 4 governments is a safe haven for cartels. Their disappearance makes the US safer and American law enforcement agencies can help destroy them. This is not an offer. It is a bell.

There is a solid foundation to this criminal narco-state edifice: Rama's pact with crime in 2013 to come to power and keep it with them. They buy votes in exchange for access to political and economic power as well as immunity from prosecution by foreign law enforcement agencies. So, a safe haven.

In 2013, Rama came to power in a pact with criminals. They helped him in the strongholds of the DP, and he made 19 of them MPs and some mayors. We had to pass the Decriminalization Law in 2015 to remove the criminals brought in by Rama from office, who called the law unconstitutional.

In 2015, the ODIHR issued a recommendation for the first time on vote-buying. The pact was bearing fruit. But vote-buying was not yet a priority concern in the elections. It was just beginning to become a problem.

In 2016, a very senior diplomat, currently out of the diplomatic service, at the height of cannabisization told me that “Cannabis is not a concern for us because it does not reach us”. My response, after legitimate surprise, was that “With cannabis, the gangs will get rich, organize and become sophisticated, they will move on to heroin and cocaine, and they bring these to you more easily than cannabis, because they are small quantities with a much higher value”. That year, the BBC reported that cannabis trafficking from Albania reached a value of 5 billion Euros. After almost 10 years, Albania is more of a concern for the US.

In 2017, a year later, the ODIHR raised the alarm with the main recommendation that vote buying was the most serious problem in the elections. Everyone remembers how the gangs were on Rama's side in those elections. The wiretaps of file 339 of the Serious Crimes Prosecution proved that the gangs influenced the placement of candidates in the winning order in the Durrës region. The list of candidates that included gang soldiers was signed by Rama.

In 2018, Rama wanted to change the law so that in order to extradite traffickers, their consent had to be obtained in advance and, if they were convicted, the requesting countries had to guarantee a retrial. Thus, Albania became an even safer haven.

In 2019, senior representatives of the Rama government met with representatives of cocaine cartels on the Caribbean island of Aruba. The most prestigious anti-mafia and anti-drug agencies have wiretapped them. While the OSCE and the EU held round tables for the 2019 elections, Rama and the cartels were sitting cross-legged around the “round table” where election promises were being torn apart in exchange for bargaining for power.

In 2021, Italian Antimafia investigations carried out the “Basso profilo” (Low Profile) operation, which exposed the collaboration of the Calabrian mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta, with the Albanian mafia. The wiretaps revealed the mafia’s connection with high-ranking figures in the Albanian government. The Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta had found a way to obtain building permits for multi-storey towers in Tirana and was looking for people who had obtained permits for the towers but needed financing.

The 2021 elections were again dominated by vote-buying by criminal organizations on behalf of Rama. Again, the ODIHR listed it as a major problem. Again, wiretapping revealed criminal organizations in Durrës competing to see who would put their soldiers on the safe list of the SP. SPAK continued its controlled anesthesia.

2021 - 2025 giant towers explode in Tirana. 80% of the investment does not come from banks, says a journalistic investigation. Reminder: "Basso profilo" wiretaps showed that the 'Ndrangheta was seeking permits for towers in Tirana to launder its criminal money. The permits are signed by the prime minister.

In the 2025 elections, the role of drug cartels alongside Rama is catastrophic. They have competed not only to put names on the list, but to get them out with so many votes that Rama himself has never received as prime minister.

Suggestion: look for the summary of architectural competitions organized by Rama as mayor of Tirana in the years 2005-2007. There you have all the towers that have been built in Tirana today and there are even others that are expected to be built.

20 years ago Rama was planning what is happening today. His lawyers would immediately call him a “visionary”. But the question is: How did he imagine the source of financing for those towers in 2005 when Albania did not have that money? We all remember that some towers that started back then stalled and the tower boom only exploded after 2013 when the pact with the mafia bore fruit. Even in the years 2005-2007 the Berisha government imprisoned the gang leaders with long sentences who began to be released after Rama came to power in 2013.

Part of the vision of 2005 (when Rama took control of the SP), unwritten but visible as tall towers, seems to have been financing from drug money from the cartels.

But is the source of funding only the drug money of Albanian cartels? The US Embassy talks about transnational crime, and it no longer simply talks about gangs or criminal organizations but about cartels that have a "safe haven" in Albania.

The meeting in Aruba, in the courtyard of the Latin American cartels, the “Basso profilo” case of the Calabrian Ndrangheta (the richest mafia), the visit to the prime minister by a cartel exponent, the taking of the port of Durres under control by the most powerful cocaine cartel in the region, all show that the towers are often the washing machines of international cartels. They have already put their claws into the Albanian economy, politics and law enforcement bodies and, through vote buying, even into our freedom to decide the government of the country.

An American prosecutor with an important position in Tirana in 2016 told me at the time: “You have to be careful in the war with gangs because it could explode like in Mexico.” I found it strange, but I believed he knew more than I did. Back then, people were still talking about gangs, while today they are cartels, and that warning sounds even more ominous.

Earlier, in 2015, a representative of an international organization dismissed the comparison of Albania with Italy in the 1970s and 1980s. “In Italy, judges, prosecutors, police, carabinieri, and even politicians and journalists who fought the mafia were killed. Here in Albania, they are in agreement,” he told me.

"Politics and the mafia are two powers that live to control the same territory: Either they make war on each other, or they agree," said the famous anti-mafia prosecutor Paolo Borselino, who was killed in the summer of 1992 shortly after Giovanni Falcone. Rama has chosen the latter. He has even appointed a coordinator for this work.

There may be diplomats or Eurocrats who say that Albania is at the top of the race. Yes, but in the wrong direction. To borrow an AC/DC title, the above shows that we are speeding on the “Highway to Hell.”

The time has come for Denarcotization. Decriminalization is no longer enough.

The Americans' stance that the cartels and their safe havens must be destroyed should be viewed with optimism. After all, in the Caribbean, not far from the island of Aruba, three ships belonging to Latin American cartels have sunk. And, more Europe, I am sure, also means less space for the cartels and Rama's pacts with them. But it is a difficult battle that begins with the recognition that this is the Narcostate that must be dismantled./ CNA