Serious Crime Prosecution Office

Multiple police operations were staged on Sunday across Albania, with officers arresting more than two dozen people suspected of drug smuggling and confiscating guns and narcotics, police and prosecutors announced on Monday in Tirana.

The head of the Serious Crime Prosecution Office, Donika Prela, said the investigation started back in 2016 and was then extended across the country.

A hearing in the trial of Emiljano Shullazi was postponed on Tuesday because a defence lawyer was dismissed on the spot, two defendants claimed to be sick and another defence lawyer said he had just learned that his father had fallen ill.

The trial of the notorious alleged underworld figure Emiljano Shullazi is nearing its end, but a lack of a lead prosecutor has prevented the Serious Crime Prosecution Office from delivering its closing arguments for the past seven weeks.