Kavaja

The former leader of Albania's main opposition Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, on Tuesday told supporters in the central town of Kavaja that he intends a return to the helm of the party he left in 2013, in a direct challenge to the current leader, Lulzim Basha.

Their story, contained in court documents seen by BIRN, speaks to the well-placed connections that grease the wheels of Albanian drug trafficking, connections that in the case of Seferi and Ajdini stretched all the way to the security detail of the country's then interior minister.

Drug deal negotiated under police guard

Albania's Central Electoral Commission, CEC, voted on Thursday to dismiss from office two MPs and a mayor who had hid their criminal convictions after submitting forms about their past.

Two Albanian MPs, one from the ruling bloc and one from the opposition, have disputed the the Prosecutor General's claim that they must be dismissed from office for hiding past criminal records.

Albania's political scene is expected to be tense for months to come as around 30,000 officials complete questionnaires concerning any past criminal convictions and the date is verified.

The situation is already heated after the Mayor of Kavaja, Elvis Rroshi, from the ruling Socialist Party, left office on Tuesday as a result of new facts emerging about his past.

The prosecutor's office has demanded the removal of 2,800 names from the electoral roll in Durres after an investigation revealed that the mayor had added thousands of non-resident voters to the list, based on falsified on rent contracts with a company owned by the municipality.

Albanian police on Wednesday said they had arrested 38-year-old Alban Haki Elezi, from the village of Frakull, near the town of Kavaja in central Albania, acting on an Interpol warrant issued by the Italian authorities.

"His arrest was carried out based on a warrant issued by Interpol Rome and a ruling issued by a court in Brescia, on suspicion of terrorist acts," the statement said.

The logistics director in the port of Durres, Fisnik Myrtezaj, a recent appointment by the centre-left government of Edi Rama, resigned on Monday following accusations that he had a criminal record for drug trafficking.  

On Sunday, the opposition Democratic Party said Myrtezaj had been jailed in 2011 for three and half years for the crime.