One-week training process for the 27 National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) members in Italy, conducted as part of the Pameca V project, has started this Monday, the Italian Embassy announced.

In a press release, the Embassy revealed that this training initiative aims to further strengthen bilateral police cooperation between Italy and Albania, making it better available to Albanian colleagues national expertise on issues such as the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking.

Besides, the Italian Embassy informed that the training will consist of thematic seminars related to topics of common interest, with visits to structures of excellence such as the Police Scientific Service, the Multimedia Information Analysis Research Center (CRAIM) and the Postal, as well as the Communication Police.

“Italy has always had an intensive cooperative relationship with Albania, not only because of its geographical proximity, but because of its common cultural roots and the presence in our country of a very large community of Albanian citizens. And in terms of security, the operational results reward this cooperation: Albania is, in fact, in first place among countries outside the EU, both in terms of the number of active fugitives (wanted by the Italian authorities and tracked in Albania) and extraditions. Active and in second place among non-EU countries for the number of passive fugitives (tracked in Italy because they were wanted by the Albanian authorities).

In 2020, the arrests of active fugitives were 68 and this year in just 5 months the data speak for 47 subjects: where the most recent were Nikola DURA and Rajmond HOXHAJ, the first must serve a life sentence for murder and the second a sentence of 22 years in prison for drug trafficking.

At the same time, there were 28 active extraditions in 2020 and in the first period of the current year, the number has already been reached. Passive fugitives, on the other hand, were 24 in 2020, while in the first five months of 2021 there were 6 arrests.

The training initiative starting today, realized as part of the Pameca V project, funded by the European Union and led by Italy, aims to further strengthen bilateral police cooperation between Italy and Albania.

Departing from Tirana, the Albanian investigators were greeted at the Security Academy by the Italian Ambassador, Fabrizio Bucci, who wanted to emphasize the quality of work done together in the field of criminal police and judicial cooperation”, communicated the Italian Embassy.