Artan Hoxha spoke about Ervis Martinaj, who is still missing and the Albanian state does not have an answer as to what happened to him.
Invited to the show “The Unexposed” on MCN TV, Hoxha said that Martinaj “revolutionized” the world of crime in Albania, uniting crime, business and politics, while he focused on his strong clashes with rival groups, with former partners of him, with powerful businessmen and even with politics.
“It’s been two years on August 9, from the moment when Ervis Martinaj’s last communication, as proven, was by cell phone. From that moment, there is a cell 30km as the crow flies from his apartment in Fushë Kuqe, that is the distance that has been tested so far and there is no contact from there and back. We are dealing with what criminalists call almost perfect crimes.
This character became so important because of the effect he had. He is an atypical criminal. He was a businessman who became a gangster. Ervis Martinaj had a significant impact, because he made an evolution in the world of organized crime in Albania, because of the way he used to climb to the top, to corrupt law enforcement agencies, to mix organized crime, business and politics. That made it important. If it had its beginnings during the DP government, it became more powerful and more potent on the ground during the time when the SP came to power.
It also survived the change of power. When there is a change in power, there is also a change in the world of crime. Ervis Martinaj is a man who, unlike other gangsters, was an important sponsor of the right.
It was atypical because gangsters of that level, when they reach an important and dominant position in the territory, try to avoid their exits and contacts. He was very visible, with great political, social, media contacts, everything. So his public appearance was very important. This is one of the factors why August 9, 2022, is taken as the date… From that moment nothing has happened.
To understand an organized crime boss, look at his opponents. The moment his opponents have relaxed, returned to the field, lowered the security level, started the activity freely, it means that they have either annihilated the opponent or made a pact. In this particular case, the alliances that Ervis Martinaj tried to make and the intrigues in which he got involved and made enemies of all his partners, the most important people of the underworld in Albania, the Duka brothers who had shared everything together, but look, when Martinaj settled in Fushë Kuqe, the district of Lezha became the most problematic district in the country.
The contacts he established in Shkodër, Mamurras, Burrel, in the area of Fushë Kruja, turned him into a generator of a very serious criminal situation. Martinaj bribed law enforcement agencies. Controlling gambling, he has never had a problem with having large amounts of money, you can bribe any official.
Gambling after 2018 cannot function without the police and the information service. He had closed this thing. He was a big sponsor in electoral campaigns.
That famous SMV of Elbasan, is the work of Ervis Martinaj, his people and financing, and we discuss about that guy who stayed (Arbër Paplekaj), who was really professional and found himself in the wrong place.
In the 2021 elections, I don’t know that Edi Rama has mentioned any crime boss by name, never, he only mentioned Çapjat once. The only one he has mentioned is Ervis Martinaj, he said “that director of gambling, we know who is in that car, what is the number plate”. It is not Rama’s style to name and attack personally. Martinaj was the only one he attacked personally. All this clash of his with powerful businessmen in the country, clash with rival groups, made him so impactful.
The moment of his disappearance, I am with this version that he was beheaded, executed and the corpse… The most perfect crime is the one that has neither a corpse nor a weapon. Today we have seen a lot of reports, testimonies, search operations, in areas where it was thought that the corpse could be buried, or the car hidden. But, until these moments, even from the prime minister’s promises, we are facing a fait accompli, we have SPAK that has issued two arrest warrants for Ervis Martinaj. And the Prosecutor’s Office of Kurbin, which investigates the murder and disappearance of Martinaj’s body.
In Albania, organized crime went to another stage,” said Hoxha.
