Hoxha: 12 billion euros in drug money were exchanged in the election year alone

Journalist Artan Hoxha has made strong accusations about the extent of informal money circulation in Albania, stating that during the 2023 local election year alone, around 12 billion euros were exchanged at currency exchange points in the country.

Invited to the show "Çim Peka LIVE" on SYRI TV, he says that the phenomenon of the sharp decline of the euro in the Albanian market and the unusual fluctuations in the exchange rate are directly related to this massive circulation of informal money outside the banking system, which is drug money.

He also brought to attention previous public statements by former minister Arben Ahmetaj, stating that his statements have been confirmed by developments and the economic and political reality in the country.

Hoxha also raised questions about the connection between the large circulation of money, investments in luxury resorts, and state decision-making on construction permits, implying that the legal and institutional infrastructure has created space for large-scale money laundering.

"What Arben Ahmetaj said, they even called me crazy, and it took years to prove that they were true. I considered them credible, why?

Because I knew that Ahmetaj was there at the table. And we know, even when he was talking about the bottle of wine. Yes, he drinks that wine. If it were another person who drinks raki, I wouldn't believe it. But Arben Ahmetaj knows wines, their quality and their price.

And you saw what happened here. They were more concerned about removing the labels of the wines there, because it would prove what Ahmetaj said, that bottles of 'Rothschild' wine worth 33 thousand euros a bottle were drunk.

So, all night they took the labels off there, took the expensive wines, left the other ones for the whole world to drink. But this bottle of wine, at first glance, seems like an easy thing, 33 thousand euros.

But when a state official drinks a 33 thousand euro wine, do you understand what impact it has on the international media, on European politicians? So, they may allow you some other things, but they won't forgive you for this part, because these are details that stick and stay there.

And then when it came to the part about what's in Aruba in 2019, then in Monaco in 2021, then in Mallorca and so on. And you find them today in resorts built on the Albanian coast, then you don't need proof anymore.

The proof is that resort that is visible from the moon. It is that simple. What more proof do you need? These people are talking about this resort. Was this resort built back then? Was it built? Yes, the film is finished. So, this has been implemented. How was the resort built? On a permit approved by the Albanian government.

Even for construction, it is the prime minister's exclusive right. They are going over 9 floors, the prime minister signs. So, everything, the infrastructure to build the money, if they can trade drugs, they trade that cocaine.

But if you as a state make it impossible for them to enter here, they will go to other countries, they do not endanger you. And the fact that they arrived in Albania was so decisive, so important in the Albanian economy, that we cannot explain. When the meeting in Aruba took place, how much was the euro in Albania?

So 1 euro was exchanged for 1320 lek. How much is the euro today, I saw it before I came on the show. It's 94 today. So, we couldn't explain how the euro went down the drain either.

From there, a big trend has begun. And I am saying only in 2023, that I will leave it to others, only in 2023, (the year of the municipal elections in Albania), outside the banking system, in the currency exchange points in Albania, 12 billion euros have been exchanged. Do you understand? No matter how much the Central Bank tries to buy in the market and intervene in the market, why is the euro where it is. 12 billion in all the currency exchange points that Albania has,' Hoxha said.

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