The Italian law enforcement agency, Guardia di Finanza and the Albanian Customs are expected to soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation aimed at preventing illegal trade mainly through maritime routes and exchanging information.
According to an official announcement, following meetings on January 25, 2024, with the Director of the Customs and Monopolies Agency, Roberto Alesse, and the Commander General of the Guardia di Finanza, Andrea De Gennaro, the Director General of Customs, Genti Gazheli, was received on an official visit to the headquarters of the General Command of the Guardia di Finanza on Friday.
This is the first visit of the Director General of Customs to the Guardia di Finanza. Gazheli appreciated the assistance of the Guardia di Finanza, mainly in its role as the Financial Police in the fight against smuggling, trafficking, and money laundering.
The leaders of the institutions agreed to soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation with the aim of:
- preventing illegal trade mainly through maritime routes,
- exchanging information between the two institutions for risk analysis,
- training Albanian customs staff at the Academy of the Guardia di Finanza, etc.
Cooperation between Albanian and Italian authorities in the field of customs takes on particular importance as Italy is Albania’s main partner with a trade volume worth around 3.5 billion euros per year, of which approximately 1.73 billion euros are exports and 1.77 billion euros are imports.
