According to the Durrës Prosecution Office, the investigation into the smuggling of hazardous waste to Thailand revealed massive violations of environmental legislation by the companies "Kurum International" and "Sokolaj" as well as by the National Environment Agency, Durrës Customs and the concession company of the eastern terminal at the port of Durrës.
The response was delayed, but not surprising. More than a year after the sensational seizure at the port of Durrës, the Prosecutor's Office confirmed on December 24, 2025 that the containers carried over 2,800 tons of hazardous waste originating from the furnaces of the company "Kurum International", documenting perhaps the most serious environmental crime of recent decades in Albania.
According to the results of the expertise carried out in Italy, the waste belongs to the category of electric arc furnace dust – EAFD; classified as hazardous by Albanian and international legislation and with very high content of zinc and iron, accompanied by lead, copper, manganese, potassium, calcium and sulfur.
The smuggling of waste to Thailand in July 2024 caused an international alarm, after the environmental organization "Basel Action Network" accused Albania of violating international conventions on the treatment of hazardous waste.
The arrival of the waste expertise report from Italy was the latest evidence in a series of investigative actions carried out by the Durrës Prosecutor's Office, which requested 33 security measures in court for the managers of the Turkish company "Kurum", the managers of the exporting company "Sokolaj", as well as officials of the National Environmental Agency, the Customs Directorate in Durrës, and employees of several other companies accused of violating legislation on waste treatment.
According to the decision on security measures that BIRN has, the export of 102 containers to Thailand in July 2024 showed that the entire environmental chain for monitoring and treating hazardous waste in Albania is not functioning - while private companies and public officials are accused of being involved in illegal activity.
At the center of the scheme are the companies "Kurum" and "Sokolaj" shpk, which, although they were fully aware of the hazardous nature of the waste, are accused of committing falsifications and other actions to hide the true type of waste, avoiding domestic and international legal obligations for its treatment.
In addition to the shipment blocked after the alarm raised by the Basel Action Network organization, the investigation revealed that the Sokolaj company had also carried out three other exports of Kurum waste to Thailand between November 2023 and July 2024.
At the request of the Prosecution, the Durrës Court imposed 33 security measures for the hazardous waste smuggling scandal, including 26 "prison arrest" measures and 7 "house arrest" measures.
The administrator of the company "Kurum International" Erdal Demir and seven other managers were sentenced to prison for the criminal offenses of smuggling prohibited or restricted goods, forgery of documents, waste management, and laundering of the proceeds of crime.
On the same charges, prison sentences were imposed on the owner of the Sokolaj company, Gjovana Sokolaj, the former administrator Oliziana Pemati, and the administrator of a Croatian company, Doni Sokolaj.
The former director of the National Environmental Agency, Arta Dollani, the current director Marjeta Përlala and seven other officials of this agency are accused of the criminal offense of abuse of office in connection with the failure to supervise and monitor environmental permits for the company "Kurum" and other companies involved.
House arrest measures were imposed on Dollani and Përlala.
Also charged in this case are the managers of the concession company of the eastern terminal of the port of Durres, EMS Albanian Port Operator, five Durres Customs officials, two Port Authority inspectors, as well as managers of several other companies.
Hazardous waste business
The Turkish company "Kurum International" has been operating in the former Elbasan Metallurgical Plant since 1998 and is an important regional supplier of iron bars for construction.
To reduce pollution caused by the industry, Kurum has been installing a filter system to capture ash waste from flue gas treatment at the former Metallurgical Plant since 2010. According to the company's environmental self-monitoring statements, it produces thousands of tons of hazardous waste of flue ash every year.
According to the investigation conducted by prosecutors Mediana Meta and Suela Beluli, the company "Kurum" has violated environmental legislation and permits not only in the treatment of tons of ash from steel chimneys, but also in the treatment of other non-hazardous waste such as slag.
The partnership between the companies "Kurum" and "Sokolaj" is documented to have begun in 2022, when "Sokolaj" submitted an application to the Ministry of Environment to be equipped with an export authorization.
According to the application, Sokolaj committed to purchasing up to 50,000 tons of waste from Kurum by 2029, to export it to Thailand.
After being denied authorization by the Ministry of Environment, the two companies set in motion a plan to export them illegally.
"The failure to grant authorization from the Ministry of Environment to export this type of waste has led the companies Sokolaj and Kurum to export this waste in violation of the law, without the appropriate authorization and by concealing the true nature of the waste in the documents…," the court's decision states.
The investigation reveals that the two companies paved the way for the smuggling of hazardous waste by falsifying its classification; it was described in documents sometimes as iron oxide and sometimes as zinc oxide, unaccompanied by its code.
On August 1, 2023, a purchase and sale contract was signed between the companies “Kurum” and “Sokolaj” for the product with the description Iron Oxide, with a variable price according to the stock exchange. According to the contract, the company Kurum undertakes to deliver the goods to the Port of Durres for a period of 1 year, together with the invoice and the certificate of analysis.
The contract has also been confirmed by the Croatian-based company GS Minerals doo, also controlled by the Sokolaj family, and has been filed by Kurum with the National Environmental Agency.
Based on this contract, Kurum issued two tax invoices; the first on October 3, 2023 with the description "Zinc Oxide (in bags) in the amount of 2 thousand tons and the second on November 16, 2023 with the description Iron Oxide in the amount of 852,740 kilograms. Subsequently, Kurum issued a corrective invoice outside the fiscalization system for the amount of 2 thousand tons, changing the product description from Zinc Oxide to Iron Oxide.
According to the Prosecution, the product was actually neither Iron Oxide nor Zinc Oxide, but a chemical compound characterized by high zinc and iron contents… at levels typical of electric arc furnace (EAF) dust – classified as hazardous waste.
The manipulations continued, according to the Prosecution, even after the waste was sold to the company GS Minerals doo, which in turn sold it to two offshore companies registered in Hong Kong and Singapore.
For the above violations, the Prosecution accuses the administrator of Kurum, Erdal Demir, who in collaboration with Gjovana Sokolaj, committed the criminal offenses of smuggling prohibited goods, forging documents and laundering the proceeds of the criminal offense.
In addition to illegal exports, the Prosecution alleges that a money laundering scheme with the source of smuggling activity also operated between the companies Kurum, Sokolaj and GS Minerals doo.
The Kurum company has profited from selling tons of hazardous waste, when in reality it should have spent money on its disposal in accordance with the law.
Meanwhile, the company “Sokolaj” bought the waste for 75 thousand dollars from the company “Kurum” and earned over 242 thousand dollars by selling it to the company GS Minerals doo in Croatia, which it controlled. Meanwhile, the waste was sold by GS Minerals at almost the same price that Sokolaj bought it from the company “Kurum”.
"The above, given that the GS Minerals company is owned by the same persons, gives rise to reasonable suspicion that this company was created not only to cover the process of exporting hazardous waste to third parties, but also to cover the origin of unjustified income," the document states.
In addition to the transaction carried out with the Sokolaj company, the Durrës Prosecutor's Office accuses the Kurum company of other environmental violations, which are related to the transfer of a large amount of hazardous waste to the "Alliance Resource" company and the treatment of slag through the Bajrami N. company.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, the Alliance Resource company does not have the necessary conditions for the treatment of hazardous waste nor the capacity to treat the huge quantities that Kurum had transferred to it, while the other company, Bajrami N, "does not have a permit for the processing and treatment of slag", which it is not known where they ended up.
State responsibility
During the investigation into the hazardous waste scandal, the Durrës Prosecution Office claims to have discovered violations of the law and abuse of office by the leaders of the National Environmental Agency, AKM, by Customs employees, the Durrës Port Authority, as well as by the concession company that manages the eastern terminal, EMS Albanian Port Operator.
The prosecution accuses the former director of the KTA, Arta Dollani, the current director, Marjeta Përlala, and five other officials of this institution of violations in the exercise of their duties as a supervisory institution responsible for respecting safety criteria in the field of the environment.
According to the investigation, the KTA did not conduct inspections in accordance with the law at the companies Kurum International, Alliance Resources, Sokolaj and ESM APO, paving the way for the collection, transportation and smuggling of hazardous waste code 10 02 07*.
"It turns out that the KTA has not conducted periodic thematic inspections, but only general annual inspections, in which violations are also identified based on the inspection results," the request for the security measure states.
According to the Prosecution, the KTA is also responsible for not monitoring the quality of self-monitoring by private companies, which have conducted them fictitiously and in violation of obligations dictated by law.
Another problematic link in the chain is the Durrës Customs Directorate, which, according to the Prosecution, has handled practices in violation of the law, allowing the export of hazardous waste.
According to the investigation, hazardous waste was deposited by the company "Kurum" at the eastern terminal of the port of Durres, operated by the concessionaire company EMS Albania Port Operator, even though the latter was not equipped with an environmental permit to accept them.
The EMS APO company has provided the Sokolaj company with space for the storage of waste at the port of Durres, through several lease contracts concluded with the company GS Minerals doo.
The concession company also had the obligation to periodically report on the type of waste it deposited, but it has not fulfilled it.
"In the case under investigation, EMS APO has admitted on at least 4 occasions to collecting hazardous waste, without conducting any type of verification and without having any safety mechanism to avoid harmful effects on the environment and health," the court decision states. /BIRN/
Security measures
Erdal Demir, Administrator of "Kurum International" in prison custody
Yusuf Sezai Kurum Administrator with proxy of “Kurum” in prison arrest
Gjovana Sokolaj Owner of the "Sokolaj" company in prison
Doni Sokolaj, Administrator of Doo Minerals Company, in prison
Olizana Pemati, former administrator of the "Sokolaj" company, in prison
Mujo Ilazaj, Director of Transport at the "Kurum" company, in prison
Rami Bunga Specialist at the environmental office in "Kurum" in prison arrest
Harun Sarica, Director of Steel Production at "Kurum", in prison
Arif Shkalla, Director of the "Kurum" company, in prison
Shaban Hyseni, Director of the Sales Department at "Kurum", in prison arrest
Mirjeta Zotaj Accountant of the "Sokolaj" company under house arrest
Mikail Hila Shareholder of the customs agency "Joti Spedition" in prison arrest
Mbarime Koroci, shareholder of the company "Alliance Resource", in prison
Nazif Bajrami Owner of the company "Bajrami N" in prison arrest
Andon Prifti, Administrator of the company "Bajrami N", in prison
Petrit Qosja, a natural person involved in the waste trade, is in prison.
Julian Kapedani, Durres Customs Branch, in prison
Indrit Likaj, Durres Customs Branch, in prison
Helidon Lila Durrës Customs Branch in prison arrest
Edmond Voda, Durres Customs Branch, in prison arrest
Shkelqim Jakupi, Durres Customs Branch, in prison
Florian Çimo Administrator of the EMS APO concession company in prison
Gazmend Sina Employee of the EMS APO concession company in prison
Ingo Hesse, administrator of EMS APO company in prison
Arta Dollani Former Director General of KTA under house arrest
Marjeta Përlala, the current director of the KTA, is under house arrest.
Dritan Seferaj Directorate of Inspection and Control, KTA in prison arrest
Kledina Skendo Environmental Permit Monitoring Sector, KTA under house arrest
Bujana Tonçiça Environmental Permits Sector, KTA under house arrest
Evis Mellonashi Environmental Permits Sector, KTA under house arrest
Kejdi Ahmetaj Directorate of Inspection, KTA in prison arrest
Iva Musa, Inspector of the Durrës Port Authority, under house arrest
Xhulio Golgota Inspector of the Durrës Port Authority, arrested and imprisoned
