SHISH Discovers Albanian Senior Official Spy

In the report of the State Intelligence Service (SHISH) for 2021, there is also talk about espionage, where a senior Albanian state official has also fallen part of the wiretapping. 

The SHISH report states that a foreign citizen codenamed "Resident" managed to infiltrate state offices, through an acquaintance with the high-ranking official who was codenamed "Key". 

The report states that during a friendly lunch, "Resident" asks "Key" for some information about the institution where he worked and in exchange had promised to find a scholarship for his son to study abroad. 

Excerpts from the SHISH report: 

During the monitoring of the activity of a suspected foreign employee of an intelligence agency of a non-violent country and with diplomatic cover, which, in this case, we are calling by the nickname "Resident", was concentrated activity in contacts with various citizens of our country, including employees of the central and local administration, due to the diplomatic function it used as a cover. The advantage of this operative is the knowledge of the Albanian language and the dexterity in creating contacts. His tendency to have access to and facilitate meetings in the offices of institutions that administer classified information has been noted, as well as actions to avoid oversight by security structures. 

The first suspicions that "Resident" had launched a possible recruitment operation came after attending several public telephone booths, at approximate hours on certain days of the month, which were realized after walking on city streets on foot and by car, for ensure that it is outside the scope of monitoring of specialized structures. 

The recipient of the phone calls was an Albanian citizen, an employee of the central institution A. The employee here is called "The Key". In one case, on New Year's Eve, the "Resident" communicates with the "Key" and asks for a meeting to wish him for the end-of-year holidays. 

Given this situation, several qualified actions were taken to document the meeting and assess the level of relations between them. Assessing the "Resident" as a professional, who had little chance of making a mistake, operational tasks were planned to verify the figure and monitor the activity of the "Key". Also, measures were taken to verify the access of the "Key" to information classified as "State Secret" as well as data on changing his behavior in the daily work routine. The first data showed that "Resident" had rarely frequented the office premises where "Key" worked and, apparently, had not expressed any special interest in the direction of "Key". 

SHISH learned that "Key" had met "Resident" in one of the activities conducted by a diplomatic mission, where they exchanged telephone numbers after a meeting. Some time later, the "Resident" had appeared in the office of the "Key", which at the moment happened to be alone, and had asked him about the location of the representative of foreign relations of the institution. Taking advantage of this situation, "Resident" invited him for coffee in one of the few bars in the vicinity of the institution. The "key" agrees to consume coffee, but in the conversations no concrete topic of interest was noticed. The conversations were of a general nature, about family, education, work environment and general issues. In the end, "Resident" invites him for a lunch out of town, setting the time and day, and asks for some information that, in the context of the task of "Key" did not constitute a secret matter.