TIRANA, May 18 /ATA/ Minister of Interior, Taulant Balla, during his official visit to Spain, was received in a meeting at the General Directorate of the National Police of Spain, where he discussed issues of cooperation between the two countries in the fight against organized crime and other criminal phenomena.
During the meeting, Minister Balla highly appreciated the support given by the Spanish side to the State Police and other law-enforcement agencies, especially in training for the fight against money laundering and the recovery of criminal assets.
The State Police have been one of the beneficiaries of the project directed by Spanish experts in “the fight against organized crime through financial investigation. The Spanish side has guided the work on the drafting of a handbook for the detection of money laundering and the recovery of criminal assets.”
Balla praised the joint operations between the Albanian and Spanish Police, in this context also the “Antihawk” operation, which has delivered very good results.
Minister of Interior also requested that the cooperation between the two agencies be further increased and deepened, by setting up joint investigative groups to combat criminal activities, in cooperation with INTERPOL and EUROPOL.
During the meeting, both interlocutors highlighted the cooperation up to now and the results achieved and also agreed on further deepening of this cooperation, especially in cases of joint investigations, for the exchange of criminal data on different persons or files, for bilateral meetings in cases of specific operations as well as those in the field of narcotics, economic and financial crimes and illegal traffic.
During the meeting, Balla thanked for the assistance of Spanish experts within the project (EU4FOCAL), implemented by the Spanish Agency FIIAPP, supported by the Guardia di Finanza of Italy and the National Police of the Netherlands, a project which closes in May of this year. One of the specific goals of this project was the fight against organized crime through financial investigation, based on intelligence and proactive investigation methods.
Spanish experts have also contributed to the Institute of Police Dogs, where animals have been trained to detect and track cash.
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