The Italian Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, during his speech at the Honoris Causa graduation in Management and Law in the Polytechnic University of The Marches, also spoke about the Albanian mafia and corruption in Albania.

Mr. Gratteri said the Albanian mafia has strengthened significantly in the recent years as a result of the government corruption. The Albanian criminal organizations clean in their country the money earned from the criminal activities and returns that money – now legal – to EU.

“When I speak about Albanian mafia I do not mean a fistful of hungry men that in the past years used to rob villas at the Adriatic coast, in Tuscany, in Piedmont. The Albanian mafia is very strong”, said Gratteri.

“It is strong because it comes from a country with a very high – not high, but very high – level of corruption. One third of Albania has been planted with marijuana; we have managed to seize single hauls up to 78 tons of marijuana coming through the Otranto Channel. And this mafia the gets stronger and richer in its country in the last couple of years is seen in joint ventures with ‘ndrangheta, from Santa Marta, to Cartagena and Bogotà, buying tons of cocaine”, said the anti-mafia prosecutor.