A team of professional killers was brought from outside Albania to carry out a spectacular assassination against the local businessman and politician Ardian Nikulaj.
A full 8 days passed, from the moment of the assassination that shocked not only the district of Lezhe but the whole country, and the State Police has finally documented and revealed the full dynamics of the crime.
It has now been proven that those who ordered the assassination against Nikulaj were very clear about who they were dealing with and that his elimination was a very difficult mission.
Convinced that Nikulaj could not be approached by a local killer or contracted by criminal groups within the territory of Albania, the orderers decided to hire a foreign team of professional multinational killers...
The core of this killer squad turns out to have come from the British Isles.
But in its composition there were also citizens of other nationalities, from EU countries.
The suspicions are that the killers may have been contacted in the United Kingdom, in the Birmingham area. They turn out to be under the control of a very dangerous British criminal organization.
The buyers and financiers of this venture are clearly Albanian citizens, who have been living and working in the United Kingdom for a long time.
It is still not clear exactly how much is the amount paid, but it is about a large amount of money, which has set in motion a team of killers from Britain to Albania.
Until now we had seen murderers from Albania, who commit sophisticated crimes in Great Britain, but we had not seen a firing squad, identified as the most dangerous criminal structure in the United Kingdom, which demonstrated its deadly skills in a city in Albania.
inquiry
After an intensive investigative work, led by the criminal police of the Local Directorate of Lezhe District, it was possible to reveal the full picture of the afternoon of April 19, 2023...
Incontrovertible evidence and evidence have been gathered that prove that the assassination of 51-year-old Ardian Nikulaj, father of four children, was planned and organized for at least 3 months in a row.
The executors of this crime are foreign citizens.
The buyers, financiers and supporters are members of the Lekstakaj family, which has been at enmity with Nikulaj for 26 years.
The motive of the crime is "blood feud".
The saga of a story between two families that starts at the end of the last century.
Executors
"Safe bases" have been made available to the executors in Shengjin and the area on the outskirts of Lezhe, in order to have as much access as possible to the operational movements of the group and not to attract the attention of the police or Ardian Nikulaj and his circle. social.
The killers were helped in the area of Lezhe by an Albanian citizen, with Albanian and British citizenship, Edmond Haxhia, who turns out to be a friendly relationship, the first cousin of Nikulaj's assailant.
Unlike the professional assassin for hire, the former member of the Greek special forces Eftimios Eftimiu, who carried out the murder in the capital of another character very difficult to eliminate by local assassins, such as Davy Kasmi, on January 29, 2018, this time imported assassins from outside, they take over the whole operation.
In the case of the Greek killer, he accomplished the mission, after eliminating the object, but his task was only the final blow.
After everything else, organization, surveillance, logistics, transport before and after the crime, was taken over by an Albanian criminal organization.
This is precisely where Eftimiu failed, because he entrusted the rest of the "work" to the Albanians and after completing the "mission", he was discovered and captured due to a mistake in his transport, from the crime scene to the "safe base".
In the case of Shengjin, the shooting team took over not only to carry out the final blow, but the entire operation, from surveillance, to the location of the most likely place where the assassination will take place, and to leaving the crime scene outside the country's borders.
But what really happened?
Vrasesi, a Portuguese of Afro-European mixed race.
The killer or the shooter, turns out to be a Portuguese citizen, Ruben Saraiva, identified by the police after he entered Albania regularly by airline and left immediately after the crime from a border crossing point on a land road, in the south-east in the country.
The murderer entered Albania on February 11, 2023 and did not leave until the evening of April 19, 2023.
For more than two months, the killer stayed in Kakarriq, but he also moved to Lezhe or Shengji, to plan the assassination, to select the most suitable place where the attack could be made and to observe how Nikulaj defended himself.
He has chosen to stay in a village like Kakariqi, not in the many hotels in Shengjin or Lezhe where he could attract more attention and be exposed.
It is interesting that the killer is a mixed race, an Afro-European, from the Iberian Peninsula.
To justify the fact that he was in Albania, even in a village like Kakariq, he used an alibi.
The residents of the village were told that the "mulatto" who came from abroad, had fallen in love with a girl from Shkodra.
But the girl's family had not accepted their relationship since he was mixed race. In order to stay close to his "girlfriend" and to have the opportunity to meet her, he had decided to stay in a village not far from Shkodra.
The murderer had even started to be called by the children of the village of Kakarriq, with the nickname "gabeli"...
Eyewitnesses have shown that he disappeared from traffic in a surprising way and was not seen anywhere for two consecutive weeks before committing the assassination at noon on Wednesday, April 19.
Vezhguesi, an Englishman from Birmingham with 27 criminal records...
The murderer, after spending two whole months to draw up the murder plan, to know in detail the terrain where he would operate and to find the weak point in the defense of Ardian Nikulaj, sought the main supporter in the execution of the assassination. This character would serve as the killer's eye.
He would find the right moment when the killer would enter the crime scene with the highest percentage to carry out the assassination and then leave the crime scene without risk.
At midnight on Sunday, April 10, entering Monday, April 11, 2023, a British citizen Steven Hunt from the city of Birmingham, landed by airline at Rinas airport. Then he traveled to the small coastal town of Shengjin.
Nikulaj's hotel security cameras caught him at 2:40 a.m. on April 11, at the reception, trying to ask for a room to sleep.
But the hotel guard seems to be fast asleep.
The Englishman appears in the image first without a hat, then he puts on a white hat to hide the appearance a little.
He, after being called several times in a loud voice, is forced to leave because the guard was not giving any sign of reaction.
From the hotel's security cameras, the Englishman was caught filming the outside areas of the hotel with a mobile phone.
Then he ran away to a well-known resort in Shengji, "Rafaelo".
He stayed there that night.
In this resort, the British citizen also made a withdrawal from the ATM in the amount of 300 thousand Albanian Lek.
Leaving traces of whose name the money account was in.
The next day, the Englishman found another hotel that was less conspicuous and gave him better opportunities to monitor Nikulaj.
He was placed in the "Besa" hotel and stayed there until the afternoon of April 19, 2023, when he left by taxi towards Rinas.
Staying in an area where there are always foreign tourists, the presence of the Englishman has not attracted special attention from Nikulaj or his people.
Presented as a tourist, the Englishman stayed at the victim's bar or played billiards on the outside porch, from where Ardian Nikulaj's residence was only a few meters away.
The watcher has had every move of Ardian Nikulaj and his people in his palm for days. It is not known if there was any meeting between him and the killer during this time, but it is now proven that the two were constantly communicating by phone before the assassination.
Contributor
As in any organized assassination, you need an insider as a "con" to "oil" the gear of the crime as best as possible.
This character is someone close to Nikulaj's attack, now clearly identified and proven for the role he played in this crime.
To be precise, he is Edmond Haxhia, the first cousin of Elton Lekstakaj and it is suspected that he is involved in this event to help his aunt's sons.
It has served as a "safe base" for those coming from abroad. He guided them where to move, how to move and how to camouflage themselves so as not to be noticed.
He sheltered the Portuguese executioner for more than two months in the village of Kakarriq. It provided him with the engine of the crime and the logistic base, weaponry, disguise, etc.
He bought the motorcycle as a gift from his girlfriend for the "Saint Valentine" holiday, on February 14, 2023, exactly three days after the Portuguese killer had set foot in Albania. The way of buying the engine is interesting.
In order not to leave traces, the motorcycle was bought online through the "Merrjep.al" sales network.
The vehicle turns out to be a Honda 750 Scooter.
Others
From the investigations so far, it is suspected that during these three months of preparation for the assassination, at least 4 foreign citizens have entered Albania, in the role of helping or observing the crime, until the final combination that carried out the mission was found.
Even in Nikulaj's hotel, there was a couple of British women who left Albania for Greece just a few days before the assassination.
It is being investigated on a case-by-case basis.
Every footage recorded in the last three months by the businesses of the Nikulaj family is being carefully checked. Every suspicious foreigner who entered and left these premises.
Fortunately, the security perimeter of businesses has been covered with quality cameras with high resolution, which record video and audio. This fact has helped the investigators a lot.
Some Albanian citizens are under investigation or wanted among the co-workers.
assassination
The footage shows that the death squad was coordinated to carry out the assassination on Tuesday, April 18.
The English watcher is positioned in the grass and billiards of the porch for hours.
While the Portuguese killer, he came from Kakarriqi and stayed at the entrance of the palace near the "Coral" restaurant for 8 hours in a row.
Fortunately for him, Nikulaj did not come to the bar during that time, causing the killers to lose patience and postpone it for a day later.
On Wednesday, April 19, 2023, the security cameras recorded the Portuguese killer appearing at the entrance of the palace at 11:37 in the morning. The killer chose precisely this building as a "safe base", as there are mostly holiday apartments there, and at this time of the year only one family lives there.
This fact gave assurance to the killer that he would not be discovered.
The Portuguese, to camouflage his appearance, is dressed very thickly and with a bulletproof vest. He wanted to create the wrong impression of the witnesses that he is a tall, plump, muscular person.
In fact, it is the opposite. He is tall, but he is thin, light in movement and with mulatto skin.
In the part of the head, he used both the hood and the motorbike's diving suit.
During this time, the Englishman is positioned on the outside porch where the billiards is located. He appears in front of the cameras either drinking beer alone or playing billiards with a child he found by chance, supposedly to pass the time.
The Englishman followed the victim's movements from the moment he came to the bar.
The watcher used the mobile device directly for communication, while the killer used headphones placed in his ears.
As soon as Nikulaj was left alone, the watcher asked the killer to come closer.
But suddenly, Nikulaj is taken from the table and moves 15 meters forward while talking on the phone.
The watcher knew that Nikulaj was armed and also the risk that if he suspected the smallest of genes, he could immediately open fire.
At this moment, the watcher asks the killer to turn back and wait a second moment.
The killer can be seen turning in the middle of the street and hiding in the entrance of the palace.
At 13:20, the Englishman makes the last phone call, giving the signal that it is the right time. Fixed at this hour, the camera fixes the Portuguese killer, coming out of the entrance of the palace.
Ardian is just sitting at the table, all alone, with his back to the door, not even checking the entrance of the restaurant.
Unfortunately for him, an unexpected phone call completely distracts him.
The killer describes the way from the entrance of the building where he was hiding, enters the bar, acts in complete surprise, giving the victim no chance to defend himself.
He shoots 7 times with a Zastava type pistol, points the gun at the local guard as a protective measure against any reaction and runs away.
Pistoleta Zastava e perdorur ne atentat krijon nje rremuje tjeter. Zastava eshte shume e ngjashme me pistoleten TT (Tokarev) sepse perdor te njejtin kaliber fishekesh, por Zastava mban 9 fisheke ne karikator, ndersa TT vetem 7 fisheke.
Vrasesi nuk e zbrazi te gjithe karikatorin prej 9 fishekesh, por qelloi aq sa u sigurua se misioni ishte permbushur.
Killeri ka patur me vete edhe nje pistolete te dyte, tip Glock, i gatshem ta perdorte nese do te kishte ndonje incident gjate largimit, por nuk pati nevoje ta perdore.
Largimi
Vrasesi portugez, pershkon me vrap distancen drejt motorrit, hipen ne te dhe largohet qetesisht fillimisht drejt Lezhes dhe pastaj ne aksin kombetar Lezhe-Shkoder duke ndaluar ne fshatin Kakarriq.
Ne dite normale nga Shengjini deri ne Kakarriq gjen te pakten dy patrulla policie.
Per fatin e vrasesit portugez, mesditen e te merkurres se 19 prillit nuk ndodhej asnje patrulle ne rruge.
Vrasesi, dorezon motorrin, veshjet dhe armet tek “baza e sigurte” ne Kakarriq dhe menjehere niset me nje mjet drejt doganes se Kapshtices ne jug-lindje te Shqiperise.
Po ate mbremje, ne oren 21:25 minuta kamerat e pikes se kalimit kufitar Kapshtice, e kane regjistruar vrasesin portugez duke kaluar kontrollin me pasaporte ne dore dhe me kembe ka hyre ne brendesi te kufirit grek.
Aty nje mjet tjeter e ka larguar fillimisht drejt Selanikut dhe me linje ajrore vrasesi ka udhetuar me kompanine greke Aegean drejt ishullit te Rodosit qe ndodhet shume afer nga kufiri me Turqine.
Ndersa shtetasi anglez, menjehere pas atentatit, ka vrapuar drejt hotel “Besa” ku qendronte. Eshte paraqitur aty shume i trembur nga ajo qe kishte pare.
In the hotel bar, he drank a beer with a whiskey and asked a taxi to leave because he felt very scared.
He first traveled towards Fushe Kruje, changed taxis there and immediately left for Rinas. At 18:00 in the afternoon, he booked a ticket with the airline that was leaving Albania that same evening.
The third
Edmond Haxhia, after fulfilling the mission, made sure that the entire execution group left the Albanian territory, a day later, on the evening of April 20, he left by plane from Rinas to Great Britain...