Special Court against Organized Crime and Corruption (GJKKO) has sentenced Tuesday the Deputy Commissioner of Fier, Festim Lelaj, to 17 years in prison, on the criminal charge of drug trafficking within the criminal group.

Lelaj was on trial for the case of trafficking 2.5 tons of cannabis seized in the port of Durres years ago, while he is also under investigation for the "Spirit" file.

However, he has been arrested for four years. The prosecution had demanded 17 years in prison for him for drug trafficking, prosecuted and arrested in 2017 for drug trafficking as he was involved in the trafficking of 2.5 tons of cannabis. Lelaj received a reduced sentence due to the shortened trial. 

The trial for the former police officer was procrastinated for at least two years in Court. SPAK has also encountered difficulties in the progress of the process, due to the change of judges. Lelaj is accused of 'Narcotics trafficking', in the special form of a structured criminal group.

Festim Lelaj, a police officer from Vlora but at that time working as a police officer in Fier directorate, was arrested in December 2017 as the person who organized the trafficking of 2.5 tons of drugs from Albania to Italy. The large amount of drugs was seized in January 2017 inside a truck in Ancona, while the local police could only arrest the driver.

In this case, the Italian police has cooperated with the Albanian Serious Crimes Prosecution, where during a year of investigation, the involvement of Lelaj in this drug trafficking has been concretized with concrete evidence.