Operation “Pika” How were the cops caught taking bribes, details from the action?

Hodaj on the “Fromental” show in T7 said the action was conducted with permission of the Kosovo Special Prosecutor.

The IPK chief chief said those arrested are police officials of the Qafe-Prush border points and Qafe-Morine.

“The IPK yesterday has finalised or carried out the operation for the arrest of police officials involved in corruption at the South border police regional directorate, or in the Gjakova region. There are two border points concretely, Qafe-Prush and Qafe-Morine”, he said.

And illegal things according to him were the things that were smuggled mostly through this border point.

“This investigation was then launched last year with special Prosecution authorisation due to allegations that various criminal groups or smugglers used these border points to pass illegal or various suspected substances without control at border points”, he said.

Furthermore, Hodaj said investigations into this action have begun since last year.

This is where we started an investigation. We implemented secret technical and investigative measures and, as a result of these measures, have managed to argue and document the involvement of these police officials in the criminal work of taking bribes and misuse of official task”, he said, in T7.

Hodaj was also declared for launching investigations. The investigation began in May last year, which according to Hodaj came after allegations and information that criminal groups were bringing narcotics to Kosovo using these two border crossings.

We consistently accept complaints from citizens, different groups, operational routes and specific police structures. Of course we verify this information and we do actions towards research, verification and discovery. This information has come in May of last year due to some allegations that organised groups and criminal groups tend to bring narcotics from Albania to Kosovo and then to other countries. We informed the Special Prosecutor and were authorized by them to start all investigations”, he said, at “Fromental”.

He also reported on the surveillance results. According to him, police officials were caught taking bribes through wiretapping.

The hearing is one of the secret methods of the investigation, but there are other methods that are used to document those allegations on which we started the investigation. Unfortunately, most police officials engaged at those border points accepted bribes and allowed people to enter and come in without regular documentation, with suspicious goods and other things. We managed to witness aloud and by figure taking the bribe”, he said.

As far as the police have accepted a bribe, Hodaj said they are different.

All these officials are involved in over 400 different cases and there are different amounts depending on what is allowed to cross the border. There are small and huge sums. It was something that was done every day and repeatedly. Most of these officials have more than two cases involved, some with dozens. Arrested are police officials, five sergeants and two lieutenants or post commanders”, he said.