The Special Appeal Against Corruption and Organized Crime rejected the request of the former police chief of Dhërmi, Sokol Bode, who claimed innocence.
Bode was sentenced to 12 years, but that was commuted to 8 years because of a summary judgment. He is accused of narcotics trafficking after being accused by the former Serious Crimes Prosecutor's Office and then by SPAK for involvement in narcotics trafficking carried out by the criminal organization led by the brothers Moisi and Florian Habilaj.
Members of the organization run by the Habilaj brothers were arrested in October 2017 by the Italian authorities and sentenced in June 2019.
They were arrested by the Italian police as they were trying to traffic a significant amount of narcotics from Albania to Italy.
At the same time, the investigations also started in Albania, based on the investigations of the Italian justice, the former minister Tahiri ended up in prison, after he was sentenced by a final decision for "abuse of duty" with 3.4 years in prison.
Meanwhile, SPAK's accusations against Tahir for drug trafficking and structured criminal group were dismissed as unproven. Together with Tahiri, charges were also brought by SPAK for the police officer Gjergji Kohila and for the former director of the Vlora Police, Jaeld Çela, the latter convicted of abuse of office together with Tahiri.