The Albanian General Prosecution Office and the Italian Anti-Mafia Directorate have decided to establish Joint Investigation Teams, a structure of which has a history of success in European Union countries
ROME, Jan. 28 – Albanian and Italian prosecutors have started to work together in their cases international organized crime groups, following a visit to Rome by Albanian Prosecutor General Adriatic Llalla, where he met with Italian Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Franco Roberti.
The two talked about joint investigations of cross-border criminal groups.
Albania’s General Prosecution Office and the Italian National Anti-Mafia Directorate have begun implementation in practice of a cooperation agreement, signed in Tirana in November 2014 between the two investigative bodies.
A high level delegation of the Albanian General Prosecution Office, led by Lalla spoke to their Italian colleagues on specific investigations involving organized crime and money laundering.
The meeting was also attended by key prosecutors investigating specific issues on cross-border organized crime. Key investigative cases that require immediate intervention of the authorities on both sides of the Adriatic were discussed.
The Albanian Prosecution Office and the Italian Anti-Mafia Directorate decided to establish Joint Investigation Teams, a structure of which have a history of success in European Union countries.
Considering the importance of these ongoing investigations, Attorney General Llalla decided to go to Rome for the meeting himself to coordinate cooperation between the Albanian Prosecutor for Serious Crimes and the National Anti-Mafia as well as some Italian regional prosecutors, Llalla’s office said in a statement.
Prosecutors in both countries have started applying “spontaneous exchanges of information,” a technique that enables the combination of real-time information, under the coordination of the central offices for foreign relations.
This technique was one of the most important achievements of the Memorandum of Cooperation signed last November, which enables communication and then targeting criminal groups operating on both sides of the border simultaneously.
