On 31st of July 2017, under the leadership of the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, was held the next meeting of the Central Task Force for the implementation of the National Plan for the Prevention of Cannabis Cultivation and Trafficking. The General Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering as an integral part of it, was represented by the General Director Mr. Arlind Gjokuta, who underlined the intense engagement of the GDPML at implementing the tasks and achievement of the objectives in the Plan, considering the fighting of this phenomenon as a common national challenge and as a battle that must be won at all costs.
Proactive action of GDPML directly at the implementation of the action plan consists in: increased control over cash flow circulation, increased control and quality of analysis on suspicious transactions, strengthening the inter-institutional cooperation and sending to law enforcement bodies a number of Top of the suspected money laundering cases.
As a result of the work done in the first six months of the year, the number of suspicious activity reports has increased considerably and there are 178 suspicious money laundering cases sent to the Police and Prosecutor’s Office. For 31 of them with a total value of 3.8 Mln euro, a transaction blocking order was issued.
91% of the cases referred have indexes of suspicious activity reports sent by law entities, which is an important indicator for the efficiency of the preventive system, in the country.
During his speech, Mr. Gjokuta emphasized the intense engagement of the GDPML in fulfilling verifications in the framework of the vetting process and leading inter-institutional coordination for the country evaluation by the Moneyval Committee of the Council of Europe, as additional elements that will guarantee long-term success in combating the phenomenon of money laundering and Criminal activities.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Rama emphasized the importance of the identification, detention and punishment of criminal elements that have profited totally Illegal large amounts of money and possessing criminal assets..
“The presence of the Director of the General Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering at this meeting is not a coincidence, but expresses the necessity that the war on this front escalate toward criminal elements, crime money and criminal assets.” – he said and underlined that it is time for the State Police to prepare for a major national control operation of elements with criminal records in all the country, which are symbols of these cannabis cultivation feuds, but not only, those who have the status “Of the Strongest” of the area and that are easily identifiable, easily criminally susceptible because of the assets they possess.