Press Release

The Prosecution Office at the Court of First Instance of Tirana has registered criminal proceedings no. 1731, year 2022 for the criminal offense of "Abuse of duty" provided for by article 248 of the Criminal Code; these investigations are related and derived from proceedings no. 553 of the year 2021.
In the framework of investigations of criminal proceedings no. 553/2021 for the criminal offense "Trading and transportation of goods that are contraband" and "Storage of goods that are contraband", after the control exercised inside the pharmacy entities, contraband drugs were found. Their sale has allegedly been favored by employees of the National Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices.

Specialists of the Sector for the Investigation of Economic and Financial Crime at the Tirana Local Police Directorate, have information obtained on the operative route, where it results that employees of the Medicines Agency, during the exercise of their duties at private pharmaceutical entities in Tirana, have consumed elements of the offense criminal "Passive corruption of persons exercising public functions", provided for by article 259 of the Criminal Code, as monetary amounts ranging from ALL 30,000 - 50,000 have been demanded and received from private entities as a reward for not punishing them with administrative measures when find a violation.
Also, in some cases, these employees have consumed elements of the criminal offense "Abuse of duty", provided by article 248 of the Criminal Code, since they did not take administrative measures even though they found violations in some pharmaceutical entities.
On our part, the employees of the Agency of Medicines, who exercised control over the pharmaceutical entities, have been identified and specifically, the citizens of A.L. and L.C., who through their inaction in the event of violations by the pharmaceutical entities, have not taken administrative measures against these entities. 
Also, in the Investigative Show of “Stop” on Klan TV on 25.01.2023, a material related to a pharmacy entity was broadcast. The two employees of the Agency of Medicines, citizens A.L and L.C., through pressure demand and receive monetary benefits from the subject in order not to impose a fine for the irregularities found in the entity or even for a continuation of payments in further periods.

Given that the Prosecution Office at the Court of First Instance focused on these two citizens as well as other persons, and evaluating the footage broadcast by the Investigative Show of “Stop”, footage which, together with other procedural actions, created the evidence for putting these two citizens before the criminal responsibility; the citizen L.C. was detained, while the citizen A.L. was declared wanted, as persons suspected of committing the criminal offense of "Abuse of duty" and "Passive corruption of persons exercising public functions", provided by articles 248 and 259 of the Criminal Code.

We take the opportunity to thank the Investigative Show of “STOP” on Klan TV for the initiative taken in the investigation of this case or other corruption cases, this translated into an aid to the Prosecution body for documenting these cases, serving the entire community and minimizing impunity to any individual who abuses the duty, considering it as a means of profit and not a service to the community.