Lajme flash
2026-08-29 08:45:00 / AKTUALITET
On the hot afternoon of August 26, as the sun was setting over Durrës beach, dozens of police officers were finalizing an important operation on the highway in the Plepave area.
The target was Ergys Agasi, a 39-year-old controversial figure, wanted since December last year for a series of serious charges related to the existence of a criminal group in the manipulation of tenders of the National Agency for the Information Society, AKSHI.
Footage released by the State Police shows a black Audi car with all four doors open at the crime scene, surrounded by civilian police cars and several officers in uniform and on motorcycles.
Agasi is also seen surrounded on one side of the street, with his hands handcuffed behind his back and his head forcibly lowered, after a coordinated operation between the Durrës Police Directorate, the operational structures of the State Police and the Special Prosecution Office, SPAK.
On Wednesday, Agasi was followed step by step by police agents as he traveled from Elbasan to Durrës together with Uljan Shpataraku, a former head of the Elbasan Police promoted by the former head of the State Police, Ilir Proda, and dismissed by his successor in May of this year for "failure to appear at work regularly."
Data obtained by BIRN through sources aware of the codenamed "Wanted" operation shows that Shpataraku was not Agas's only protector within the police ranks during his months on the run.
Independent sources told BIRN that the police had ongoing information that Agasi was hiding mainly in a building in Shkozet, Durrës, under the protection of a criminal organization, but there was no will for his earlier arrest.
The police also had information about his movements from the Shkozet base towards Elbasan and Tirana to hold meetings with various characters from the criminal world.
"There was information about his location before, but now the moment has come for the intervention," said one of the sources on condition of anonymity.
A second source told BIRN on condition of anonymity that despite information about his whereabouts, the work to identify Agas’s whereabouts and arrest him officially began after the rotation of the State Police leadership structure, which was concluded at the end of July.
"Previously, it was impossible to take action to detain Ergys Agas, despite the existence of extensive information and data on his location, which was administered by investigative and law enforcement institutions," the source said.
Although he was not a public official, Ergys Agasi had, according to investigations conducted by SPAK, influence over a number of high-ranking officials and powers delegated by the political establishment. The fugitive former deputy prime minister, Arben Ahmetaj, has publicly accused him of playing the role of "a coordinator" between the organized crime underworld and the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama.
For more than a decade, the AKSHI managed a huge budget, where in just 19 procedures investigated by SPAK, a limit fund of 5.9 billion lek (about 59 million euros) was calculated. The investigation revealed that the director of the AKSHI, Mirlinda Karçanaj, and her deputy, Hava Delibashi, had left these funds in the hands of a group linked to organized crime, predetermining the winners and ensuring the diversion of tens of millions of euros to the accounts of IT businessman Ermal Beqiraj and businessman Ergys Agasi.
Agasi and Beqiraj are accused of having, together with Karçanaj and others, created a scheme to extort public money by doubling the value of tenders, fixing the winners and diverting millions of euros to the accounts of a fictitious company, while using members of organized crime to "eliminate" rivals. They are also accused of money laundering.
Agasi has denied the allegations through his lawyer, Maksim Haxhia. The latter told reporters on Friday, after a security measure session that left Agasi in prison, that his client "has never been part of tender procedures, has not had any kind of benefit, and has never been part of criminal groups."
Agas's partner, Ermal Beqiraj, was arrested in France on July 24 while flying a light aircraft in restricted airspace over the Penly nuclear power plant and was escorted by the air force until he landed at Albert aerodrome in the Somme region of northern France.
According to SPAK, further investigations by French authorities identified Beqiraj's assets in France, which are suspected of having criminal origins. According to the Special Prosecution, Beqiraj is suspected of transferring part of the illegal profits to France with which he bought a castle, two apartments, motor vehicles and deposited over 2 million euros in bank accounts.
About three months ago, the Special Court of Appeals decided to dismiss part of SPAK's requests for the seizure of assets worth 40 million euros belonging to those investigated in the AKSHI affair and individuals and companies linked to them./BIRN
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