Sawt Falasteen - Albania arrests 20 for toxic waste trafficking

The arrests come more than a year after the Durres prosecutor's office opened investigations into more than 100 containers of hazardous waste allegedly from a steel mill in Elbasan.

Earlier, prosecutors told AFP 33 arrest warrants had been issued over an alleged toxic-waste trafficking network, including customs agents and employees of the National Environment Agency.

The alleged offences include trafficking of prohibited goods, abuse of office and money laundering.

Police said they were still searching for 13 other suspects, including three Turkish nationals and one German.

Police raids were launched on Tuesday after lab analysis confirmed the materials, returned to Albania in 2024, were toxic, said prosecutors.

Customs documents had said the shipment carried iron oxide when it left the Balkan nation bound for Thailand.

But the shipment was rejected after an environmental group claimed it contained illegal toxic waste, forcing its return to Albania.

The environmental group Basel Action Network (BAN), citing a whistleblower, said the cargo had contained electric arc furnace dust, a toxic byproduct of steelmaking.

Experts in Albania began taking samples from the shipment last October as part of an investigation into the smuggling of prohibited goods.

At the time, prosecutors said they had opened an investigation into suspected smuggling and abuse of office in cooperation with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).

BAN founder Jim Puckett said it was unclear why the sample had taken so long to be analysed and warned the material could have leaked or been tampered with in the meantime.

Environmental campaigners say industrial waste is often shipped by Western countries to be processed in Asia and Africa, a global trade they estimate may be worth up to $82 billion a year.

D.Khalil--SF-PST