In a country where democratic institutions are already fragile, a sprawling Italian anti-mafia investigation has thrown Albania’s political establishment into turmoil. At its heart lies the so-called Troplini Group, a narco-network accused of trafficking heroin and cocaine from Latin America through the Port of Durrës, laundering profits via the country’s booming construction sector. But this is not just another organized crime case. It is, in the words of analysts, a portrait of state capture — a web of collusion between criminal gangs and political elites, with grave consequences for democracy.
As Albanians went to the polls on May 11, they did so under a dark cloud. Revelations from Italian prosecutors suggest that this election, far from being a democratic exercise, may have been orchestrated through what critics are now calling the “criminal quadrilateral”: stolen votes, laundered money, mafia muscle, and state-issued favors.
Surveillance data, wiretaps, and financial records suggest that criminal groups received construction permits and public tenders in exchange for intimidating voters and financing campaigns. These are not claims from the opposition alone. Italian court documents corroborate much of the pattern.
One of the most glaring examples is the case of Elvis Doçi, or “Visi i Pojës,” the nephew of notorious trafficker Xhevdet Troplini. Just weeks before the election, his company was awarded a lucrative permit to build a 10-story hotel in Durrës. The opposition alleges this was not coincidental — it was compensation for campaign “services,” including coercion and manipulation.
The construction sector — once hailed as a symbol of post-communist progress — now appears to be a laundering machine for narco-capital. More than 100 building permits were approved in the two months leading up to the elections, many in electoral battlegrounds like Tirana and Vlora. Meanwhile, the artificially suppressed euro exchange rate suggests unexplained foreign currency inflows, possibly linked to criminal sources.
Political figures once seen as technocrats are now emerging in a different light. Socialist MP Jurgis Çyrbja was arrested for alleged collaboration with gangs. Documents implicate the Suel Çela group in steering state contracts, while the promotion of Adelajda Roka—sister of a key figure in this network—into Albania’s National Planning Agency speaks volumes about the reach of this criminal influence.
Worse still is the timing. Though Italian courts issued arrest warrants in February, Albanian authorities delayed action until after the May 11 vote. By then, suspects had disappeared — raising urgent questions: Was this delay strategic? Were criminal actors protected until they had secured an electoral outcome?
Opposition leader Sali Berisha has called for the annulment of the election results and the creation of a caretaker government. “This is not democracy,” he said. “It’s a criminal cartel disguised as a government.” Prominent public intellectual Fatos Lubonja has echoed these concerns, urging a wide-ranging denunciation of what he terms an “electoral massacre.”
What is unfolding in Albania is not a one-off scandal. It is a systemic pattern. From Çyrbja to Çela to Troplini, a grim cycle repeats: organized crime funds the elections, ensures the victory, and reaps the rewards — state contracts, permits, and impunity.
Civil society voices warn that unless this cycle is broken, Albania’s European integration is at risk. As one investigative journalist put it, “Every four years, narco-capital decides who rules.” Albania’s electoral processes and its skyline may be modernizing, but beneath the glass towers and campaign slogans lies a rotting foundation.
The government continues to deny wrongdoing. Yet the documented evidence — from wiretaps to financial audits — is too detailed, too consistent, and too damning to ignore.
This is no longer just a corruption story. It is the story of how democracy dies — not with tanks, but with permits and contracts, signed in the name of progress, and paid for by silence.
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