In a well-organized ambush, in “Dobraç” of Shkodra, on the main road that connects the city with Malesia e Madhe, two vehicles cut off the path of a “Mercedes”. A Kalashnikov was fired at him, as a result the bullets fell on the driver of the vehicle.
The car swerves and crashes first into a motorbike carrying a couple and then into the perimeter wall of a building. In the overturned vehicle, the driver is found dead, while the passenger is in the last throes, while the images from the engine crash are shocking. The woman Flutura Basha died at the scene, while her husband Bashkim Basha is in serious condition.
For more than an hour, the victims and the two wounded remained on the street, while the police mobilized to enter the area bathed in blood and bullets.
The target of that massacre was Hamza Lici, only 23 years old. Arlind Bushati was also in the car with him, who received a bullet in the head and died in the hospital. While Bashkim Basha, who was driving the motorcycle at the moment when the two cars opened fire on the vehicle in which the two young men were traveling, is in critical condition. About 3 hours after the incident, the police received information that a burnt car was found in the area of Gruda e Re, inside which two Kalashnikovs were also found.
The police, as always, lost track of the assassins. He then collected the cartridges at the scene, as he said he also collected the film footage. Husband and wife, Bashkim and Flutura Basha, were traveling by motorbike when Lic’s vehicle collided with them, killing the woman on the spot, while Bashkimi was taken to the hospital, but doctors have confirmed that he is in serious condition. While Bushati was in critical condition for a few hours, due to the bullet in the head!
POLICE AFTER THE EVENT
Arlind Bushati, 32 years old, is the son of Xhemal Bushati, the former candidate for mayor in the city of Shkodra. Three weeks ago, he went to the Shkodra Police and testified that two people wanted to kill him in the pedestrian area. He reported that he felt threatened, but the police did not reveal who the two men were who threatened him. Later, not by the police, but by eyewitnesses, they were told that in fact two people, relatively young, took out the gun to execute him, but the gun was blocked and as a result Arlindi was able to escape, but not in the fatal ambush of yesterday afternoon.
Yesterday, Arlindi was traveling to Koplik with Hamza Lici, son of Mustafa Lici, brother of Ibrahim Lici. It is learned that they were in a vehicle with Croatian license plates, while it is not known what their exact route was. The ambush was carried out in the middle of the main road, where, unfortunately for them, the Basha couple were also passing by. Hamza Lici, whose name became known only a short time ago when he publicly defended his brother, Ibrahim, died at the scene, thus becoming the next victim of the bloody clashes between the criminal groups of the city of Shkodra.
The police have only revealed the details regarding the identities of the two victims and the two injured, while they were told that they also conducted a check on the target’s vehicle. Firearms were also found inside this vehicle, but it is not yet known if the two target persons were able to use them in front of the ambush with Kalashnikovs.
The police of Shkodra came out last night with the announcement regarding the three pistols found in the bullet-riddled car where Hamza Lici was killed. It was said that the footage was seized at the scene, that two groups of RENEA were sent to Shkodra, that experts and police leaders were placed at the head of the investigative group, but no information came out about the route they took. the killers, who burned one of the cars, which they said was a “Range Rover” type, in the village of Golem in Gruda e Re.
The two survivors of that event are unable to testify, while the exterminating clashes between several families in Shkodër are known to a good part of the public opinion. The RENEA groups entered last night the “Dobraç” neighborhood, where the area is known as the stronghold of the Bajrajs, the tribe that has publicly declared enmity with the Lici tribe for many, many years. Even the residents of Shkodër, who are well aware of this clash and the areas of influence, throughout yesterday’s afternoon expressed surprise at how Hamza Lici had dared to enter the neighborhood of “Bajrajve”, although they were crossing a main road!
BLOODY Clashes
The Lici tribe is known for its clashes with the Bajraj and Bilal tribes in the city of Shkodra. The violent clashes of about a decade have resulted in more than 20 loss of life, while it is said that the enmity between them is based on influences in the markets of the city of Shkodra. However, almost none of the murders have a perpetrator behind bars. The only one arrested in the entire bloody story between the parties is a 15-year-old child, who said he witnessed a murder in the Meadows area. The 15-year-old testified that he was present at the murder of Endri Mustafa in a drug plot and that his execution was carried out by Ibrahim Lici.
The event took place in May three years ago, while Lici denied authorship, giving an alibi. The boy, who was also suspected as the person who ambushed Mustafa, the father of three children, withdrew from the testimony, telling the police and the prosecution of Shkodra that he had lied to them. As a result, the prosecutor’s office and the court sentenced the 15-year-old, but did not investigate the murder of the young man, leaving the path open for the continuation of the revenge killing between the parties. Ibrahim Lici was accused of a number of crimes, including the execution of Mustafa.
For this event, he was wanted and arrested in Turkey, but he refused extradition, asking for asylum in Turkish justice, as his life was in danger in Albania and there was no guarantee that the process would be fair. Lici’s name came to the surface of the rule of the strong of Shkodra in 2017, when he was no more than 24 years old. They were told that the businesses would be fined, and at that time the police carried out an operation arresting several people, among them Ibrahim Lici, who was later released.
Ibrahim Lici was arrested together with his brother, Muhamed Lici, in March 2017, after they were said to be leading a criminal group that imposed fines on the merchants of Zdrale in Shkodër. Muhamet Lici was sentenced to 13 years in prison, while the court released Ibrahim Lici. It is during this period that the saga of collisions begins. One of them with the tribe of Bajri and Bilali, former friends of the Lice. And things got worse when Astmer Bilal, arrested for several years, killed his father and uncle in Shkodër. The Lici tribe was suspected, but never proved. Series of conflicts between gangs in this city have produced since 2017 at least 20 killed so far and dozens of assassinations. The most recent of the clashes was the murder after the entrapment of Endri Mustafa in 2021 in the “Livadhet” neighborhood.
The police wanted Ibrahim Lici, but the latter said he had an alibi and that the murder was committed by the Bilals, putting the blame on him. According to the police, Lici is the main author of the assassination attempt on the brothers Astrit and Brahim Bilali, the father and uncle of the boxing champion Astmer Bilali, which happened on March 30, 2019. They were executed at the gate of the house with a Kalashnikov and the event was investigated as a clash between rival gangs in Shkodër. Astrit Bilali, who died together with his brother on March 30, 2019, is the father of Astmer Bilali, the former boxing champion arrested as part of the “Bajri” group in Shkodër. Astriti was a well-known businessman in Shkodër and in the city he was identified for his passion for horses together with his brother Brahim, who was the chairman of the “2 April” association. How did the clashes between the Lici and Bajri tribes and the bloody saga start since 2018? The crime is the result of clashes between two groups Lici and Bajri in Shkodër, clashes that have registered several victims. Everything is suspected to have started since the assassination in January 2018 against businessman Lulzim Kulla.
MARKET EXPLOSION
The remote-controlled explosion injured eight people, including Kulla. On June 18, Mehdi Kavaja, a citizen, was killed in his garage while he was repairing car locks, a suspected revenge murder. That event is still without a perpetrator, while the lock repairman was shot in the head, remaining dead on the spot. On July 15, 2018, the couple Boran Bërçana, ex-policeman and Silvi Ndoci, were executed under the apartment they rented, while the 3-year-old child was also in the car with them, who miraculously escaped the bullets.
The ex-policeman Bërçana was suspected of having ties to the “Bajri” group, who are currently under arrest, and the ex-policeman Bërçana was also suspected of having ties to the assassination of Lul Kulla in January 2018, and the murder was allegedly committed by the Lici tribe in Shkodër , who are related to Lul Kulla, since he is their son-in-law. On August 10, 2018, Fatbardh Lici, member of the Lici family, brother of the strong Sokol Lici and member of the Shkodra Municipal Council, Mustaf Lici, was killed. This murder is suspected to have come as revenge from the Bajri tribe, after the murder of the ex-policeman Bërcana.
On August 23, the citizens Agron Mollaj and Gëzim Hysa, nephew and uncle, disappeared, and still today they have not been found. These two citizens are suspected to be related to the Lici tribe, while it is thought that after they disappeared, they were killed. Not many days passed, the murder of Arjan Ferracak, who was shot while he was with his horse in the Meadows area, on September 1, 2018. Arjan Ferracak, a few minutes before he was killed, had communicated with Astrit Bilal and the latter had called him to go out on horseback, as Astriti was going to accompany some tourists from Kosovo to Lake Shkodra.
On November 14, 2018, Fatos Ferracaku, Arjan Ferracaku’s cousin, was killed. Fatos Ferracaku was killed in the middle of the day, while he was selling fish in the “Rus” neighborhood. On March 20, 2019, another murder occurs, as Ferdinand Polia is executed with 20 bullets, but this is a murder that has been solved by the Police and has no connection with the clashes of the Bajri-Lici groups, but with some events that happened in Italy, where the victim was part of a criminal group there, 9 years ago.
In September 2019, after the beginning of the series of crimes, the police intervened by arresting suspected members of the “Bajri” criminal group. 12 people, including Astmer Bilal, were arrested in Albania, Holland, Belgium and Spain.
/ Panorama newspaper
