Yesterday, Bloomberg wrote that Albanian officials are investigating how 800 tons of suspected hazardous industrial waste were transported from the port of Durrës without authorization, destined for Southeast Asia, as the suspected cargo was to be returned.

The hazardous waste sent from the Port of Durrës to Thailand, on which Albanian authorities are investigating together with the institution of the European Union against Fraud, OLAF, belong to the company near the Metallurgical in Elbasan Kurum.

The ship with the toxic waste left Durrës on July 4. After being alerted by the Basel center, it turned off its GPS signal on July 31 while approaching Cape Town in South Africa.

In the meantime, the Albanian Customs has also reacted to these statements, which through a post on social networks qualifies as disinformative the information that is being distributed regarding this matter.

This institution emphasizes that this information is used to smear the work of the Albanian Customs Administration.

The announcement also states that this case is not an export from Albania but an international transit of the zinc concentrate product from Kosovo.

In its response yesterday, the Ministry of Tourism stated that it did not give any authorization and therefore the KURUM company did not present data on the destination of the cargo, while it emphasized that the law enforcement institutions have engaged and are conducting joint investigative actions with the Office anti-fraud of the European Union (OLAF).

The Ministry of Environment also stated that the waste of the KURUM company was loaded in Durrës in containers owned by the international line MSC and is suspected to have been transported to the Port of Trieste.

Notice of the Albanian Customs:

Based on the disinformative information that has been spreading for days in the media and is being used for political reasons and to smear the work of the Albanian Customs Administration, we clarify the following:

The case cited by the media is not an export from Albania but an international transit of zinc concentrate product from Kosovo. So, the product is zinc concentrate originating from Kosovo with the sending/exporting company Apelbaum shpk with the address Rr. Fehmi Agani, Pristina/Kosovo; The receiving/importing company is ACHRO AG based in Steinhausen Switzerland.

The Swiss firm ACHRO AG is the orderer according to the BILL OF LOADING (B/L) of the shipping company MAERSK for the transport of this product (LOW GRADE ZINC CONCENTRATE) to the receiving firm GUANGXI LOGISTICS INDUSTRY INTERNATIONAL TRADE CO. LTD, NANNING, China.

Above we reiterate that:

• It is not a product originating from the Republic of Albania;
• It is not an export from Albania but an international transit between a company from Kosovo and a Swiss company without the involvement of any company from Albania.

ADSH, as in previous cases but also in this case, is exchanging intensive information as well as cooperating closely in a joint investigation with OLAF (EU Anti-Fraud Office) as well as other law-enforcement bodies.