The trial begins today for the main figures of the criminal gang Franc Çopja and Mikael Qosja, who are suspected of being members of a mafia clan in Albania, often mentioned in cases of large-scale cocaine importation into Europe.
On November 27, 2020, Ardit Spahiu, a 38-year-old Albanian, was ambushed on Condor Street, in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean.
An armed and masked man, equipped with an automatic weapon and silencer, opened intense fire on him.
According to foreign media , 17 shell casings were found at the scene, while nine bullets struck the victim.
According to the initial findings of the forensic doctor at the scene at the time, Ardit Spahiu may have been ultimately executed on the sidewalk where he fell.
Ardit Spahiu is also suspected of being involved in drug trafficking, through another clan, the Alibej clan, a rival to that of Franc Gergely. According to family members, a war that allegedly lasted for years and led to several murder contracts in Albania.
The reasons for the conflict vary from one testimony to another, such as rivalry for market control, the theft of a 50 kg shipment of cocaine, financial debts, or even simply ego issues.
The investigation stalled for a long time, until the authorities managed to decipher the SKY ECC network, the messaging application used by the international criminal world. “It was like sitting at the criminals’ meeting table,” commented a senior federal police official at the time. This deciphering led to the destruction of many criminal organizations around the world, and elements related to the organization of the murder of Ardit Spahiu were also found in these communications.
Especially on the pages of message exchanges between Franc Gergely, also known as Franc Çopja, and the other protagonists of the case, three of whom are still at large.
It is now up to the jury members, selected this Monday, to determine the reasons for this murder, if they are to find the defendants guilty.
Franc Gergely was arrested in September 2023 in the United Arab Emirates, from where he was extradited in December of that same year, a first judicial precedent between Belgium and this Middle Eastern state.