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NAMES/ SKY ECC's "Black Eagle" file, increased sentences are requested for two other Albanians
2025-04-27 17:24:19 / AKTUALITET
Lawyer Benjamine Bovy requested before the Brussels Court of Appeal the release of Arten Hamzai in the “Black Eagle” case, which is linked to a vast cocaine trafficking network that generated hundreds of millions of euros between 2018 and 2020. Arten Hamzai, 27, is the son of Alfredo Hamzai. He is suspected of having supported his father, particularly in money laundering.
Arten Hamzai was acquitted by the Court of First Instance on June 26, 2024. Bovy therefore strongly argued for the confirmation of this decision. “The evidence in this case does not allow you to conclude that my client is guilty,” declared the woman who took over Arten Hamzai’s defense from Aurélie-Anne De Vos, who has become deputy public prosecutor of Brussels. According to the federal prosecutor, Arten Hamzai was involved in the giant drug trafficking network run by his father and, in particular, participated in the laundering of illegal money through his father’s companies, in which he held shares.
The court requested an 8-year prison sentence for him. When questioned on March 26, the defendant stated that he was unaware that he was a shareholder in the following companies: Summer Dépôt, owner of a large real estate and hospitality complex in Albania, Fabrika e Bukës, Peer 2019 and 2A Construction. For Bovy, even if the court were to consider that his client was lying and that he was fully aware of what he possessed, the public prosecutor has not provided evidence that these structures were used for money laundering.
The lawyer of another Albanian, Erik I., argued for the confirmation of the first-instance decision for her client before the Brussels Court of Appeal, in other words a suspended prison sentence. Erik I., a young Albanian studying in Italy, is accused of participating in drug trafficking by repeatedly transporting drugs.
Various elements of the investigation revealed that he had transported drugs by bicycle on behalf of his brother-in-law, Indrit Kulaj. He is one of two suspected leaders of a large network that transported cocaine from Latin America to Europe via Belgian ports, a group dismantled in 2020.
In the confession, Erik I. said: "I feel ashamed of the things I did. I've thought a lot since then. I want to leave all this behind and move on with my life." In the first instance, in June 2024, the judge gave this repentant person a favorable measure: conditional suspension, accompanied by a prison sentence.
“My client has fulfilled all the conditions of this suspended sentence,” the defense attorney insisted. “The judge had ordered him to resume the studies he had abandoned in Italy and he has indeed re-enrolled at the university. The judge had ordered him to find a job and he has an employment contract,” she explained.
Erik I. did not appeal his sentence in the first instance. In court, he requested a 7-year prison sentence for the young man. Some of the Albanians mentioned in this process have been previously identified by the media and they are Artur S., Indrit Kulaj, Arben I., Alfredo Hamzai, Arten Hamzai, Fjodor B., Aldo T., Llazar S., Marsel A., Erik I., Geron Z., Klodjan B., or the Kosovar Bashkim O., considered among the biggest Albanian 'players' in the cocaine market. This file also revealed connections with officials in Albania, including bribing one of them with a 400 thousand euro watch or meetings with them in the Netherlands Antilles to enable a building permit for a tower in Tirana.
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