Nothing new, from the event in the west of Albania...
Today, the arrest of an officer of the Special Operational Force, who is accused of having served as a bodyguard or driver of the "king of gambling" in Albania, Ervis Martinaj...
For those who have known Martinaj, this fact is no surprise.
As an illustration, I am bringing an episode in 2015, shortly after the operation with the code name "The End of Stupidity", where it was intended to attack illegality in the gambling industry, but in fact the opposite happened.
The moderator of Neës24 invited me to the column "Opinion", which was broadcast live, every afternoon at 17:00.
During the conversation I was explaining how organized crime corrupts the police, not only to neutralize them so they don't hit them, but also to turn them into collaborators in the fight against rival groups...
At one point, the moderator asked me, to what level did this corruption go and how was the payment made?!
I'm just bringing you one detail, I told him.
Tirana has 6 chiefs of police stations. I learned that 5 of them receive a fixed reward of 2,000 euros per month from a betting company that controls the gambling market in the country and has strong ties to the underworld.
This fee is given to the leaders of the police stations in front of them, even without making any contact or cooperation. Then whoever is more flexible, multiplies the payment depending on the contribution he makes.
This is enough for this structured criminal group, not only not to be hit in the activity it carries out, but also to be helped by attacking its rivals.
At that moment the moderator asks me:
If there were 6 chiefs of police stations, why do you say that only 5 of them are on the board of the gambling company???!!
The sixth, I told him, has not received the appointment yet, he is only under command and I don't know if they put him on the payroll...
Not even 10 minutes had passed since the end of the show, when my cell phone rang and on the other end of the phone, a person spoke to me, who introduced himself as Vis Martinaj.
"I followed your show carefully, but you were a little inaccurate", he told me.
Taken by surprise, as I knew well who he was, what he represented and I did not expect him to pick me up on the phone, I said: where was I wrong?!!
"Listen, he told me, - even the sixth one is on the payroll"...
Therefore, if somewhere, or sometime, the payment list that Vis Martinaj made to high state officials, police leaders, prosecutors or judges, through his gambling companies, would surprise even the best specialists of the Ministry of Finance, how rigorous and accurate it was compiled....