An investigation by the Special Prosecution Office shows how the group accused of organized crime led by Aleksandër Laho checked old property registers in the Cadastre archives and used them to take control of thousands of square meters of land on the coast of Durrës and Tirana - to then sell them to government investors.
In December of the distant year 1932, Mrs. Bihter Toptani purchased 130 hectares of land in a place called "Maranishtja" in Shetaj i Ishmit in Durrës - today one of the most coveted tourist areas in Albania.
The transaction was carried out in the presence of a peace judge, and after the purchase, Mrs. Toptani gifted the land to her 15-year-old daughter. The actions are described in detail in a Radhor – as the Cadastral register was known in Albania until 1945. But in a second register from 1929, the same transaction jumps into the time machine.
When the old Cadastre documents fell into the hands of the Special Prosecution Office, prosecutor Altin Dumani could not help but be surprised.
"This 1929 register describes transactions carried out in December 1932, and as evidence, references are made to the acts of the Ishmi mayorship of 1925, a time when the property had not been purchased by Bihter Toptani," he reasons.
The episodes are mentioned in the request for a security measure dated October 1 against Aleksandër Laho, known as Rrumi, and Astrit Avdylit, two organized crime figures with a series of criminal charges on their backs. Seven other people are accused by the Special Prosecution Office for the criminal offenses of murder and the alienation of hundreds of thousands of square meters of land on the Durrës coast.
According to the security measure file, Rrumi was at the forefront of a sophisticated property theft scheme, aided by Cadastre officials, notaries, lawyers and members of the criminal group, who used false documents to steal state-owned land and transform it into multimillion-dollar tourism investments.
The group had managed to steal from the Radhorë Cadastre archives of the 1930s–1940s, which were filled with fake transactions on blank pages through a forger. He is also accused of finding “heirs” to apply for the return and compensation of properties added to Radhorë and pursuing the processes for their financial compensation to the court, when the property could not be physically returned. The scheme also included changes to the AMTP of the 1990s, the disappearance of property cards and their replacement in the Cadastre with fake cards – but often with the institution’s seals.
Rrumi and the others were convinced that the forgeries would not be caught, while they had an appetite to occupy, in addition to the lands on the coast, entire hills on the outskirts of the capital.
"Look, there's some space, let's not do anything from Tirana... If only we could have included those hills all the way from New Tirana, across from TEG," Laho writes to his brother in one of the messages found by the prosecution.
According to SPAK, the property alienation scheme included, in addition to Aleksandër Laho, his brother, Vullnet Muça (Kondi or Muharremi), suspected of forgery and active corruption, recently arrested, as well as Agron Bejdolli and Vlash Brahja, accused of manipulating ownership documents.
Astrit and Elidon Avdyli are accused of premeditated murder for revenge and criminal activity, along with Alfred Doka and Enea Kumen, who are accused of participating in the criminal group and involvement in the murder of Edmir Bregu alias Ilir Kuçi (Maloku).
At the end of the investigative chain stands Ermira Avdyli, with a security measure requiring her not to leave the country, suspected of falsifying official documents that supported the scheme.
'Almost perfect'
Aleksandër Laho, 52, known as Rrumi, has previously been investigated for falsifying thousands of square meters on the Durrës coast and is being tried in absentia for the criminal offense of corruption in collaboration with Irgen Kërçuk - a former employee of the State Attorney's Office.
But the new massive scheme was uncovered, as the file shows, after a 5-year investigation that began after the 2019 assassination attempt in Durrës, where Andi Maloku was killed and Laho and former prosecutor Arjan Ndoja, currently a member of the Democratic Party, were injured.
After the assassination, the prosecution seized Rrumi's encrypted phone and a memory card, inside which they found photos of Cadastre pages and other forged documents.
In 2022, the prosecution seized part of these properties and found traces of forgeries through interventions in the Cadastre. Laho was also declared wanted then.
But the real dimensions of what was happening in the Durrës cadastre and the massive alienation of properties on the coast became clearer when SPAK took over the conversations on Sky ECC between Rrumi, his brother, Vullnet Muça and Astrit Avdyli's nephew, Elidon Avdyli, and other unidentified persons.
These exchanges also revealed Rrumi's efforts to cover his tracks and corrupt those investigating him. The wiretaps show that Rrumi was aware of the SPAK investigations, had a complete list of the property files being verified, and moved to minimize the damage. He attempted, through his brother, to bribe the expert who was conducting the verifications, demanding that the expertise bring the properties to order and boasting that the process was almost perfect.
"It's not bad because the seal and signature are all in order and the letter is original," he writes.
The messages exchanged show that for a moment, Rrumi and his brother believed they had the expert in their hands, and even considered using him to improve the scheme.
"I want to know where we went wrong, that they caught it, along with other rules," he writes.
However, the expertise resulted differently and declared the documents forged.
The expert found problems with signatures and seals in the AMTP and also discovered that the sheets used to replace pages removed from the Cadastre were printed elsewhere and did not have the same data.
Meanwhile, the messages exchanged between Laho, his brother, and other individuals involved in their efforts to cover their tracks, mentioning cadastral numbers and property names in the communications, are now additional evidence in favor of the Prosecution.
"Mozi" and "Daja"
While under pressure to cover up the forgeries, Rrumi and the others did not stop at their plans to seize new lands and sell properties they considered "worthless."
At this point, the group had obtained Radhorë from the 1930s, applying an entirely new scheme of forgery beyond the classic method with Land Acquisition Acts, known as AMTP.
The document does not clearly state the time when Rrumi obtained the Cadastral Registers of 1927, 1932, 1933 and 1957 from a former employee of the State Cadastral Agency, identified as “Mozi”, who removed the registers from the archive. Investigations show that some of these books have not been returned and are missing even after the investigations.
Communications in SKY ECC show that Mozi sold the records to the group, after they had previously verified whether they had blank spaces to fill or the possibility of erasing and rewriting. It is also implied that behind "Mozi" there was someone else in the mortgage who helped against bribery.
"Yes, Mozi, did you give him the price he wanted for those books?" Laho writes to his brother in one of the messages.
In addition to the former Cadastral employee, the scheme also involved a forger identified as "Daja". The latter appears to be a key person in the manipulation of AMTPs and also in the deletion and processing of pages of cadastral books. "Daja", according to conversations between Laho and his brother, also produced fake Lek and Euro, which the group intended to put into circulation using managers of second-tier banks.
According to the Prosecution, the Radhors taken from the archive were handed over to "Daja" and he imitated cadastral actions in them. Laho appears from the conversations to have required great care in the ink used and the language to be as similar as possible to that of the '30s.
"The mechanism used in this case is the securing of registers titled "Rows for Transcriptions" from the years 1929-1957 by a person named Mozi, by corrupting him and employees of the archive of the former ZVRPP, the partial deletion of writings that were on the last pages of the register or on pages within it, but with little written content, the rewriting of a new transcription by a person named "Daja"," the prosecution says in the request for a security measure.
The prosecution says the process did not end there. The group at this point recruited heirs from the expropriated families of the area or families of former owners. In the old registers, the land was placed in the names of their ancestors and after the documents were “legitimized,” these heirs made requests for physical return or financial compensation for the property.
"Finding trusted persons (preferably former owners) whose name would serve as the "heir" of the falsified property, applying to the Property Treatment Agency for recognition, compensation or physical return/civil lawsuit in court for owner recognition and requiring the ZVRPP or ASHK to register the property. Disposing of the property by selling it to investors interested in investing in the coastal areas of Durrës District. They also used the same mechanism to falsify properties in the Tirana District," says the Prosecution.
A number of cases of this nature have been identified in the file. Although traces of forgery are evident according to the Prosecution, with dates that do not match, actions that contradict the law of the time or false data where a house property was described as arable land and similar, the scheme was not caught.
Laho was convinced that the scheme would go to court. After they registered a property that turned out to be occupied, Laho insisted on going to court to get compensation.
"Regarding this property they have acquired, Aleksandr stated that they had no luck, but to file (open a lawsuit) to receive compensation, because according to him the property is a secret and the state or the court do not make an effort to provide compensation," he is quoted in the prosecution file.
In another case, on the last pages of the 1932 Radhori, actions from 1933 are added, even though these books were closed within the calendar year.
"From the review of the register entitled "Register for Transcriptions, No. 4 of 1932, of the Durrës district, which begins on October 18, 1932, on its last pages were recorded transcription notes dated December 31, 1932, and after the transcriptions of this date, the Transcription Note dated January 6, 1933 was recorded," the prosecution says.
Property in exchange for murders
The Special Prosecution's investigations show that Rrumi had deep hands in the Cadastre. In addition to the people he had bought within the institution, he also attempted to influence decisions regarding people who did not obey him.
In several messages with his brother, Rrumi instructs him to send messages to Prime Minister Edi Rama, the head of the Albanian Anti-Corruption Commission, and the former mayor of Durrës, Vangjush Dako, to influence the dismissal of employees who did not obey him and against the local police director.
According to the file, he instructed Vullnet to send anonymous messages to Artan Lame, Vangjush Dako and Edi Rama against a mortgage employee as well as against the director of the Durres Police, alleging that the latter was "connected to gangs".
Similarly, Rrumi has been well-informed about government projects in the area and aims to acquire properties in or around them, even at expensive prices.
In a transcribed conversation with a person identified as Viktor, Laho says he was willing to go to court over a property, although to get past the first instance, he was informed that he would have to spend 100 thousand euros.
The property was located in Ishëm and a port was planned to be built on it.
"Where there will be a port that Rama has approved, a boat port or I don't know what exact port," he writes.
But while these appear to be “business decisions,” the conversations between Rrumi and Elidon Avdyli, part of another criminal group led by Astrit Avdyli, speak of gang warfare. Transcripts from SKY ECC describe a coalition between three well-known groups in the area; Rrumi’s group, Avdyli’s group, and Xhevdet Troplini’s group, who aim to hit the other Durrës group led by Lulzim Berisha, Plaurent Dervishaj, and Edmond Çekiçi.
In the conversation, Elidon Avdyli says that he had spoken to a person he identifies as "Çunin i Pojës" to start the attacks. In the conversations between Laho and Elidon Avdyli, there is talk of a plan to kill some rivals. Avdyli seems more enthusiastic in these cases.
"Brother, we need 10 victims before the end of the year," he writes.
Laho, for his part, asks Avdyl to target the main names of the group. “Comrade, the head of the group is Luli first, Çekja; then this Lenti basin… these are the ones who run the city’s game… ,” the conversation is quoted as saying.
What the prosecution has documented in this case is only the murder of Edmir Bregu and the fact that Laho was using Elidon Avdyli to eliminate rivals. Avdyli himself in the conversation asks for land in exchange for the murders. "Look, brother, that land that you told me not to leave behind because I really need to give it to my children. And who knows how to get it. I will take it violently, my friend," he writes.
In the same conversation, Laho replies that he can take any property he wants, as he has endless properties./Reporter
