The cigarette-smuggling scandal erupts again 11 arrests in a single day EDMOND LACI TIRANE — The old customs scandal story is erupting once again. This time, the investigation into the case, entered in November, has been unusually intense. Within a few hours in Gjirokastër and Tirana, a total of 11 people were arrested, among them customs officers, heads of well-known companies, and even former senior customs officials. The arrest “blitz” — carried out over the course of Friday — has brought the total number of people now held in Tirana Prison and suspected of being involved in one of the biggest scandals in Albania, that of customs, to 14. Months earlier, the investigations into smuggled cigarettes had already led to the arrest of Lebanese citizen Nabil Sibili, as well as Thoma Bicolli, former Director General of Customs. In Gjirokastër, the customs officers Diamant Diamanti, Thoma Dilo and Viktor Labovi were arrested, all three accused of abuse of office. At the same time, five other people were arrested on other charges. The other detainees include two former customs employees. The arrested people from Gjirokastër are under accusations of facilitating cigarette smuggling. Tirana Customs It is learned that in Tirana, arrests were carried out against several other people. According to official statements, five are accused of “forging documents”; the investigations in this case are highly restrained, and it is suspected that the seven arrested in Gjirokastër are linked to cigarettes brought into Albania by smuggling. In this same case, within a few hours, the Tirana “blitz” also arrested four other people. Among them are two former customs employees, one of whom was even a former head of Customs in Tirana. The other two — capital-city traders — are accused, like their counterparts in Gjirokastër, of involvement in cigarette smuggling. Thus the old customs scandal story erupts once again. The first person arrested after cigarette-smuggling accusations was the Lebanese Nabil Sibili, about whom it was said at the time that he had been deeply involved in the Albanian market for “Cooper” cigarettes. The scandal erupted again when, in April, the former highest-ranking customs official in Albania, Thoma Bicolli, ended up in Tirana Prison. According to the new facts revealed in the investigation previously conducted by the State Control Commission, the customs scandal — in financial terms — was considered one of the biggest because of the losses it caused. In some periods alone, the losses to the state amounted to more than 1 million dollars, or even 300 thousand dollars per month, due to fictitious reductions in the price of cigarette shipments. Meanwhile, hundreds of other shipments — without entering a border customs point — were sent to Tirana, but disappeared and were not cleared there. According to a calculation by the State Control Commission, at the Kapshticë customs point up to May '93 — because of the lack of entry-exit records — it was thought that more than 100 trucks per month had passed without being customs-cleared. Meanwhile, investigations are still ongoing.

VLORE — Vlora can now also speak directly with cities in Albania and in other countries around the world. The installation of a new telephone exchange — just completed — has made it possible for the city to be included in the national and international telecommunications system. In addition, 600 new telephone numbers have been added to the city, thereby meeting urgent communication needs. However, the implementation of these projects represents only the first phase of the modernization of the telephone network. Other telecommunications projects will improve and expand the automatic wired network. Thus, according to the master plan of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development with Albanian Telecom — by the end of this year or at the beginning of 1995 another electronic exchange with 3,000 numbers is scheduled to be installed. The expansion of the telecommunications network is not limited to the city of Vlora. Soon it will also extend to other towns in the district. Selenicë and Orikum are expected to be equipped with an automatic exchange with 400 numbers. Another new exchange — with 1,000 numbers — will be for the city of Himarë.

Sport Italian Serie A championship Milan-Foggia, a spectacle A moment from the Milan-Foggia match, where Kyçnov, scorer of Foggia’s goal, is in a duel with Milan defender Maldini Results of the other matches on page 4 Results of the Albanian Championship on page 3 History of the World Championship on page 5

From the world INVESTIGATION INTO THE MASSACRE IN HEBRON — The Israeli government unanimously decided to form a commission of inquiry into the massacre that took place on Friday in the Mosque of Hebron and to issue an order for the removal of weapons from the area of Kirjat Arba and Hebron, in the occupied territory. More importantly, the government has decided to suspend armed settlers. The government has condemned and ordered the immediate opening of prisons around the area for Palestinians arrested in January during the fight against Israeli forces. LEBANON, ATTACK WITH SEVEN DEAD — A bomb exploded in the Church of Saint Mary in Jounieh, in the northern suburbs of Beirut, leaving at least seven people dead and 37 others injured. The priest who was celebrating the mass, attended by 500 Lebanese Catholics, was also wounded. The Pope, who is due to go to Lebanon in May, said he was deeply affected and stated that this attack was the work of terror. LONDON, MASSACRE IN A CINEMA — So far, the dead from the firestorm in a porn cinema in London have been counted. The injured are scattered around. Several witnesses said the fire started from a bottle filled with incendiary material. Some of the victims were unable to escape the flames. GERMANY: NUCLEAR SMUGGLING INCREASES — Smuggling and illegal trafficking of nuclear material have clearly increased in Germany over the past year, according to the police in the state of Bavaria. Citing numerous files, the Berlin city police newspaper confirmed 42 arrests and the seizure of smuggled goods. In the difficulties of the links that had authorized with 0111032 the efforts have fallen 99. YESTERDAY IN ALBANIA OVER 20 MILLION LIRE FOR THE BUILDING HIGH SCHOOL IN SHKODËR — The Technical Institute of Grosseto in Italy has also allocated a sum of 20 million lire for the building high school in Shkodër. This amount will be used to renovate the premises as well as to equip the school’s production base. This aid, together with a number of tools, is the result of the twinning agreement between the two schools. IN TIRANA, THE CREATION OF TRANSPORT COMPANIES TOWARD PROCESSING — The general chairman will connect the capital with 4 road networks from the east, as a conclusion to the process of creating private interurban public transport companies. So far, links have been maintained with 32 districts across the country. This interurban system of Albania has been created on the basis of the minister’s order, which passed this into new measures for improving the ministry’s structure and the functioning of the Albanian service. IN GJIROKASTËR, A MOTEL-FUEL-STATION-SERVICE — A Turkish firm will invest one million dollars in the construction of a Motel-Fuel-Station-Service complex in Vlora and Gjirokastër. This complex will have stations, a 60-seat restaurant, a hotel with 20 rooms, a fuel dispenser and a vehicle service point. OIL EXTRACTION RISES IN VLORE — 9 tons of oil a day are being extracted only during January by the oil enterprise in Vlora. That enterprise also had good results during the previous year. Thus for 1993 it had managed — by reducing expenses — to achieve a total profit of 30 million lek.

Tuđman’s visit ends today TIRANE — The visit of Franjo Tuđman, President of Croatia, to Albania is still continuing today. Tuđman — who is in our country — has met with high-ranking Albanian figures. One of the bilateral talks concerned the expansion of cooperation and relations between Albania and Croatia. Tuđman and Albanian personalities also discussed and assessed the problems found in the Balkan region as a result of the crisis in the former Yugoslavia. Today the President of the Republic of Croatia will leave Albania. President Franjo Tuđman

Repairs TIRANE — The hands of the capital’s clocks will once again start moving normally. Now — after nearly three years — the mechanism is ready to be repaired. Thus the Tirana Municipality has taken responsibility — through the Decor Funksionale enterprise — for their repair. There were 17 clocks — of Chinese manufacture — that did not escape destruction during 1991, and only 12 of them survived. Work is now under way to put two of them back into operation; the control center is also badly damaged and has lost much of its precision. Meanwhile, the Municipality has opened a special tender for the installation of a new clock system in the capital.

It led to the discovery of a criminal organization, but now she risks her life The story of a girl forced into prostitution VLORE — The odyssey of an Albanian girl who reached Italy clandestinely led to the uncovering of a network that systematically raped her and forced her into prostitution, and in the end, after she rebelled against her exploiters, they kidnapped her so she would not testify. It ended with her sudden escape from an apartment in Piumazzo (Modena) and with a Carabinieri operation, still in progress, in an Italian town. The story began on 29 September when the girl, perhaps under coercion, boarded a fishing boat together with other clandestine migrants. After landing in Brindisi, the girl was placed in the care of a fellow villager, Rustem Resuli, 28, who first took her to Bergamo and then to his home in Riva del Garda (Trento). On the second night Resuli raped her several times and forced her to work as a prostitute. A short time later, broken and desperate, a young man from Pogradec (Trento) gave his testimony to the police and denounced Resuli. The police, who arrested him for rape and exploitation of prostitution, repeated rape, kidnapping and threats, ordered the protection of another girl who was staying as a watchful housemate in Bergamo, Vlore. Trento and Bolzano. Resuli was already in prison in another case, linked to a second rape case involving him. After threatening to kill her friend, they kidnapped their compatriot and took her to an apartment in Piumazzo where several Albanians with regular documents live. Another girl stays with the girl. The imprisoned woman manages to open a window and jumps from the first floor. Meanwhile, a car driven by the driver escorts her to the Albanian Carabinieri barracks from her stories and within minutes the soldiers prepare the raid, detain “the prisoner’s guard,” and get ready for a balthë[?] to present false documents and begin a series of checks on girls in various provinces. The case, it seems, is not over yet either; in the middle of this there is also a very powerful kidnapping organization that threatens, with death, the girl’s parents, who are here in Albania.

The Cypriot ferry ship “Laburnum”, just after departing from the port of Bari bound for Durrës, collided with the fishing boat San Nicola I off the coast of Vincenzo on the way to Andea Gel[a?], leaving it badly damaged; the collision was verified par[?] ... [?] At the site of the accident, the crew of a patrol launch from the Port Authority intervened and escorted the fishing boat to the shore. Bar[?] suffered serious damage in the section above the waterline; meanwhile, the ferry departed for Durrës according to schedule. A file has been opened to clarify the causes of the collision. In the photo, the fishing boat hit by the ferry

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